A FLORIST in York, whose mother recently died, has launched a "home visit" service for bereaved people.

Sue Dodsworth, who for the past six years has been proprietor of Floral Elegance, in Front Street, Acomb, wants to ensure that bereaved people are not too distracted by the details of the necessity to pay tribute to their loved ones.

Her mother, Mary Hunter, died aged 80 in October. "In my own distress, even I who knows this trade backwards, found myself hesitating. I wanted guidance. That is why I decided to start this service," she said.

Sue added: "We have an area in the shop where people can seek our advice and make purchases.

"But often they are grieving too much to be distracted by physically visiting a florist's during this harrowing time.

"But now a floral expert can visit them and advise them on size and shape of their personal tributes and how to personalise them for example, if it was for an infant or child the design would clearly be different than for an adult. Or if the deceased was say an angler we could design floral tributes around fly floats and reels."