Winnipeg businesses find ways to celebrate Mother’s Day amid COVID-19

Liliane Lavack doesn’t know anybody who doesn’t like flowers.

That’s part of why she normally moonlights as a pop-up florist with her twin sister Francine.

But in the time of the novel coronavirus, it’s anything but normal for this part-time florist as Mother’s Day approaches.

She was busy Saturday, preparing bouquets for physically-distanced pick up from her Old St. Vital home — typically, she and her twin would set up their Deux Cocottes Pop Up Flower Shop in the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre, ready for walk-ups keen to stop and smell the roses.

Lavack’s is just one Winnipeg business adjusting to the new normal of COVID-19 while trying to find a way to help people celebrate a physically-distanced Mother’s Day.

“I will literally place the bouquets outside as they exit their cars and come and pick up their flowers,” Lavack said, standing next to a small display of extravagant bouquets on her lawn.

Lavack thinks it’s important to show you care — especially now.

“It’s love, flowers are temporary — they encourage us to live in the moment and really appreciate the moments that we have, even all of the little things. If we can’t celebrate together, we may as well give a piece of life,” she said. “We’re at a distance right now, and it’s hard to connect. This is just another way to say, ‘I’m thinking about you, I love you, I want to be here with you, here’s your favourite flower’.”

For Lavack, it’s also about the connection and intention of a bouquet.

“The sale is a bonus so I can keep buying more flowers. But when people come to pick up the flowers or come here to pick up the flowers, I come out and I speak with them — flowers are usually purchased for a special occasion and I want to know what that is,” she said.

Other Winnipeg businesses are finding ways to adapt to provide that Mother’s Day connection too.

A Mother’s Day brunch out likely can’t be in person — public health orders shuttered restaurant dining rooms in early April, although the province let patios reopen at limited capacity this week — but local restaurants are offering takeout and delivery.

At least one local restaurant — Fusion Grill on Academy Road — is offering a “brunch kit” with prepped ingredients for salad, fish and a dessert, while others like Silver Heights Restaurant are offering takeout charcuterie.

Public health officials, meanwhile, have told Manitobans to celebrate Mother’s Day this year, but to do so differently.

“Celebrate that day, but we need to celebrate it a bit different,” Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, said earlier this week. “We need to continue to think about connecting virtually.”

0:44 Coronavirus outbreak: Manitoba’s top doctor cautions against large gatherings on Mother’s Day