PLAINS, Ga. — The day Hope Jones has braced for since opening her florist and gift shop here four years ago could arrive soon.
She’s given a heads up to her flower supplier. She’s recruited extra floral designers, including two who plan to drive in from the other end of the state.
It will be the busiest time Plains Sweet Stems has ever seen, bigger than Mother’s Day. Bigger, even, than Valentine’s Day, she suspects.
And Jones wishes it wasn’t coming. Because it will mean her hometown will have lost Jimmy Carter, its most cherished resident.
Locals and people around the world will rush to share their condolences with flowers and plants to the former president’s offices and family in this small rural Georgia community.
“We are ready for the business part as far as flowers. We are not ready to lose President Carter,” said Jones, whose whole family, including grandparents, grew up in Plains.
“You just don’t get any better than him, to me, as far as a true Southern gentleman. He loves Plains.”
She said the former leader of the free world attended the grand opening and ribbon cutting for her shop four years ago. He wished her well with the business and told her to call if she ever needed anything.
Rosalynn, his wife, visited later. “She walked around and told me how pretty it was. She’s a sweet, sweet lady.” She particularly pointed out the orchids, a favorite of hers.
The Carters’ staff would order arrangements from the shop. Often, if it was on behalf of Rosalynn, it likely would be yellow roses or dish gardens with green plants. The former president or first lady would follow up with a typed thank you note, hand signed.
The couple attended her grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. When Jones’ daughter, Bailey, was in third grade and won an art contest at the local peanut festival, Jimmy Carter gave the award and posed with her for a photo. He gave Bailey a childrens’ book written by his daughter.
Bailey, now 22, remembers it wasn’t uncommon to see the former president and his wife riding bicycles through town, with Secret Service agents tailing them in black SUVs. “Hey, President Carter,“ she’d say.
Hope Jones’ mom, Cheryle McCrary, a retired nurse and the shop’s main floral designer, went to school with some of the Carters’ kids. Years later, as a mother with three young kids, McCrary remembers how chaotic it was living near the center of town when Jimmy Carter was president. Celebrities came to Plains, and tourists and protesters swarmed local streets and parks. “We ended up moving. It was awful.”
Things have quieted a lot since then.
Still, when Jones opened her shop, it was a stress-relieving respite from the farming, trucking and garbage hauling businesses she and her husband own.
Carter was already well into his 90s at the time. She knew she’d have to be ready to serve people wanting to honor him and his legacy once he died.
Flower orders started picking up this past weekend, when the former president began hospice care at his home about four blocks away.
Jones has lined up extra helpers. And instead of having just one floral designer, she’ll have at least four, including two friends ready to drive down from north Georgia.
She knows Plains has had Jimmy Carter for most of his 98 years. “I still wish it would be another couple years.”
