Florist Keeps Mother’s Day Alive with Flowers
Nina Tuimouta is a familiar face in the capital city. You will find her selling her beautiful flowers at the market where florists are based.
But despite the low sale of flowers because of the COVID-19 crisis, she’s hopeful that for Mother’s Day, she can continue to put a smile on her customers’ faces.
Like many small and micro businesses, hers has taken a drastic hit yet you can still find her at the same spot with the ever-so-famous Bula smile.
“Mother’s Day is one of those celebrations of the year we look forward to because as a businesswoman, we get to make a lot of orders and money for ourselves,” she said.
“But because of the COVID-19 restrictions, business has been a bit slack for many of us here at the Suva market.”
Ms Tuimouta said: “In previous years, I would get a lot of orders for Mothers’ Day, Sunday church services, but this year, it’s not so much, churches are closed because of the pandemic.
“But for now, it has been mostly ordering for funerals and birthdays. “On a good Saturday, I am able to earn $300 with my regular customers and orders. I also used to get flower arrangement orders from banks and media offices.” Ms Tuimouta hails from Nasau, in Koro, has four children and has been a market for 25 years, but for the last seven years she has been a florist at the market.
“I call this market space my office and the presentation of the flowers to our customers is important. “From my experience, I believe flowers are living things that should be treated with much care and love and with a good heart, these flowers tend to give out the best of their appearance and if it’s attractive people will buy it.
“For Mother’s Day, I am planning to just have a family church service, lunch and spending it with my kids at home,”