TOWSON, Md. — Fresh off of making forty deliveries this morning for Radebaugh Florist in Towson, ‘Rockin’ Rob Bruns says his Valentine’s Day gift to his wife is just giving her space after being cooped up for a year now.
“She’s glad to see you leave every morning?” I asked.
“Sort of… and so am I,” he laughed.
Customers are few and far between at Radebaugh’s shop just two days before the big day, but business is booming.
“People aren’t comfortable leaving their homes so we’re doing a lot more deliveries,” said Kaitlin Radebaugh, who represents the fourth generation of the family-run business.
The flower shop opened on the heels of the Spanish Flu pandemic in the 1920’s and her father gave her advice at the onset of this outbreak.
“We had to furlough people,” Kaitlin told us. “I was really distraught about it, and he just said, ‘If you make it through this, you’re going to make it through anything. This is the most unprecedented thing I’ve ever scene.'”
With most of her lucrative wedding business wiped out last year, Radebaugh used the shop’s liquor license to offer up special holiday baskets, and she’s placed orders six months out to counter any products shortages.
Now, in spite of the virus, the weather and the calendar, she’s found hope in a day devoted to love.
“When you get to see some of the card messages that come through, you’re like, ‘Aww,’” said Radebaugh. "And even for the ones who can’t be with their loved ones, we’re getting a lot of messages and stuff going to nursing homes, and they haven’t seen each other for a long time so it’s so nice to be able to be a part of that special happiness that you know is going to happen.”
