A single rose will accompany each Meals on Wheels meal delivery Friday – a postponed Valentine’s Day treat – for all 680 Cumberland and York County residents who receive the food.
Lorraine Merrill, a South Portland resdent, left enough money in her will to give a single rose to all Southern Maine Agency on Aging’s Meals on Wheels’ clients. Merrill started giving roses anonymously in 1995, and her $75,000 bequest upon her death in 2004 ensured that the tradition of delivering roses with Meals on Wheels continued.
When Ira Rosenberg, Prime Motors Group owner, learned of the Valentine’s Day rose delivery, he volunteered to deliver meals and buy a heart-shaped box of chocolates for the seniors on his route. He will even buy sugar-free chocolates for four recipients who have diabetes.
Penny Cole, a volunteer Meals on Wheels driver who has been delivering meals in Westbrook for a year, will coach Rosenberg through a Meals on Wheels route leaving from the Prides Corner Congregational Church in Westbrook Friday morning. Together, they will visit with 13 Meals on Wheels recipients as they deliver a nutritional meal, a fresh rose and a box of chocolates.
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