Receiving flowers is always a special moment in a woman's life but for Masterton's Mildred Turley, a single ceramic bloom that arrived as a gift from Britain was a wonderful post-Christmas surprise.
The bloom was a uniquely crafted poppy, one of 888,246 that, as a sea of red, filled the famous Tower of London moat as an installation to commemorate 100 years since the outbreak of World War 1.
Mrs Turley had been to the tower many years ago as a tourist but never expected she would ever own her own little piece of history from the exhibition Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red that captivated the world from August 5 last year until November 11.
She had reckoned without the knowledge her granddaughter Jessica Williams, who is formerly from Masterton but now works in banking in London, was keeping an eye out for a special present for her grandmother.
It arrived earlier this month with an explanation every one of the hundreds of thousands of poppies had been hand crafted and a guarantee no two ceramic blooms were exactly the same.
