[projekktor id=’21745′]

The Annual Mum Show at Hamilton’s Gage Park Greenhouse has long been a must do for city residents. This year, the show has taken on a special significance for one man, living on the east mountain. A retired school teacher, John Weiss and his wife Mary, married for 58 years this is something they’ve rarely missed.

It started out as just a simple request on a Facebook post from John’s grand-daughter Michelle, in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. But from there it has blossomed into a wonderful story of remembrance. “The mums are always so colourful and so bright and cheery and it was very very nice, and this is why we go back just about every year is to see that,” said John.

But this year was different, as his grand-daughter Michelle Poitras explained. “Well my grandma passed away, two or three weeks ago now, at the beginning of October. She unfortunately had Dementia, Alzheimers, and that eventually led to her passing away.”

John happened to mention the flowers to his grand-daughter on the phone this weekend, which gave Michelle an idea. “I had originally just wanted to get maybe one flower for him to maybe put beside her urn.”

While looking on line for some way to do that, Michelle accidentally stumbled on a page “Recycling Kindness Hamilton”. She offered to pay someone if they would take a pot of mums to her dad.

“The next thing I know this morning all of a sudden these people are bringing in pots of mums for me. Lots of mums. Lots and lots of mums.” But according to Michelle it didn’t stop with flowers.

“I’ve actually had a couple of people say, if he doesn’t have a place to go for Christmas, we’ll set a place for him, we’ll come and dig his garden for him, we’ll bring him coffee. Yes, Hamilton is the city that gets involved, literally. I don’t have words to thank the people that have done all this for me and for John, it’s a beautiful way to hang on to Mary, just a little bit longer.”