SheriAnn and the Glass Pansy

“Good morning ShariAnn. I wanted to get you a little welcome gift, something for your desk.”

“Thank you, Sir,” said SheriAnn.

Mr. Pike, SheriAnn’s boss, had given her a small blown glass sculpture. A rough glass pot colored and shaped to look like terracotta with clear glass pansy’s of different shades and color domed the top. One single blue pansy stood out over the others on a long clear green, leafy, stem.

SheriAnn grimaced and thought, “this is the ugliest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”

But she left the ornament on the corner of her desk.

“What’s that?” asked Susan from human resources.

“Gift from Mr. Pike,” said SheriAnn.

“You like pansies or glasswork?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it. It was just a nice gesture is all,” said SheriAnn.

“Hey, SheriAnn, I know you like pansies. I get one for my wife every year on easter and I thought you might like one too,” said Brent from accounting as he handed her a live violet in a pot.

“I don’t really want it?” said SheriAnn.

“Nonsense, it takes a cup of water a week. That’s it. Easy peasy apple pie,” said Brent from administration.

The plant grew and so did the pansy collection.

“I saw this cute little pansy pin and thought of you, here,” said Janet from IT, who pinned it high on her shirt.

“Thank you,” said SheriAnn.

“I found you letterhead with little purple pansies,” said Bill in purchasing.

“Thank you,” said SheriAnn.

“I thought you might like this pansy desktop calendar. It’s a different pansy every day of the year!”

“Thank you,” said SheriAnn.

She received a bouquet of pansies if she got sick and on her birthday. When they went out bowling her shirt read, “Pansy Kween.” Her company portrait highlighted pansies weaved into her hair and she had a sketch of a pansy on the wall next to her diploma. She dressed up as a pansy for Halloween two years in a row.

“Are those little pansy earrings?” asked Donna in legal.

“Do you like them?” asked SheriAnn.

“I really do.”

During a work retreat they asked ice break questions in a circle and someone asked, “if you were to get your first tattoo, what would it be of?”

“We all know what SheriAnn would get,” said the group.

“One step ahead of you guys,” SheriAnn said and rolled up her sleeve to show her new pansy tattoo.

When Mr. Pike passed away she left pansies at his graveside service and the collection continuerd to grow and the collection grew.

Then SheriAnn retired and she brought in two boxes just to fill with her pansy collection before meeting the team in the conference room for cake.

“What do you like so much about pansies?” asked Charlotte in marketing when there was a lull in conversation.

“Absolutely nothing,” said SheriAnn.

Everyone’s ears perked up at once, since no one had ever thought to ask the question.

“I received my first pansy as a gift from a boss. I didn’t like it,” said SheriAnn.

“You don’t like pansies?” whispered several in the crowd.

“My husband brought my daughter to visit me at work one day and she brought me a paper mâché pansy she made at school. She had seen me bring several live pansies home from work to plant in the garden. She told me that her favorite flower was the pansy because it made her think of her mom. Did you know that giving someone a pansy means 'you occupy my thoughts'? Suddenly, every pansy I had reminded me of my daughter. When I couldn’t be near her, she was still surrounding me,” said SheriAnn.

SheriAnn took one box of pansies under each arm as she left the building for the last time. As she walked by the new girl’s office she stopped, set down the boxes, and pulled out a little glass sculpture of terracotta pot with a dome of pansies and one tall blue one sticking out on top.

“I wanted to get you a little welcome gift, something for your desk.”