I walked past the site of the old Zuzu’s Petals on Seventh Avenue between Union and Berkeley Place and saw what I think is a new laminated sign (okay it’s been there for six months – I didn’t notice).

There have been signs on that storefront ever since a fire forced Zuzu’s out of their longtime location. Here’s the latest missive from those lovely Zuzu ladies. On top of the note there was a movie still from "It’s a Wonderful Life."

While I was jotting down the words, one of my neighbors, a reader of OTBKB, walked by. We read the note together and she told me about a rose she bought at Zuzu’s that lasted two weeks. TWO WEEKS. I told her about the two dozen roses I got at Key Food that were THORNY and lasted ONE DAY. ONE. Moral of this story: Get your roses at Zuzu’s.

This is the scene from "It’s a Wonderful Life" when George Bailey fixes his daughter’s Zuzu’s damaged fose and tucks the broken petal in her pocket.

Since August 26th 2004, the day of the fire that cost us our home of 33 years, we have focused all our energy on rebuilding and restoring our showp, our business, our lives with the help of so many loving friends.

The morning after the fire, we posted a note here which asked what we learned. There have been many lessons. But these are perhaps the most important:

Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.

The love you take is equal to the love you make.

There is much to be said for the kindness of strangers and the loyalty of old friends.

We count ourselves lucky for being part of the Park Slope community. Because of that, Zuzu’s Petals blooms again. Perhpas better than ever.