Fitzsimmons sparked ‘cheeky’ Flower Count
VICTORIA — The Victoria woman who started a light-hearted campaign to count blossoms sprouting in the capital when much of Canada remained locked in winter’s grip has died. Norma Fitzsimmons was 97.
Her annual Greater Victoria Flower Count signals the early arrival of spring in Canada’s warmest winter city, died Friday after suffering a stroke.
This year’s 45th annual flower count, held March 4 to 11, saw a total of 45.9 billion blooms recorded in Greater Victoria.
“I don’t think she meant to get under anybody’s skin,” said granddaughter Sheri Bourrie. “It was just a cheeky way of being, ‘Hey, look at us and look at how fantastic Victoria is.’”
Fitzsimmons, born in August 1922, never left Victoria and stayed in her home overlooking Cadboro Bay until the final weeks of her life.
Flowers were her lifelong passion and served as her way of helping people and promoting Victoria, known as the City of Gardens, said Bourrie.
“You didn’t ever go to her house and there wasn’t a flower arrangement,” she said. “Even the last time we visited her there was a flower arrangement.”
Fitzsimmons started her career as a florist, working in flower shops in downtown Victoria before buying her own flower business in 1957, which she sold in the late 1980s, Bourrie said.
Fitzsimmons, known as a tireless community volunteer, would make flowers part of as many local events as she could, said Bourrie.
She would donate and arrange flowers for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter dinners at Victoria’s downtown Our Place shelter for homeless people. She also provided flowers and arrangements for the Greater Victoria Art Gallery, Victoria Symphony and the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
Bourrie said she organized a beach wedding in 2010 for former cross-Canada runner Steve Fonyo after sponsors pulled out of the event following news the cancer survivor’s bride had previous convictions.
Daughter Diane Kuypers said her mother saw herself as an ambassador for Victoria as a colourful, generous and welcoming city.
“It’s a hard act to follow,” said Kuypers. “She was just so kind and her love of life — I think that gave her that longevity that she did have because of her passion for everything.”