Carnations to caskets

In tomorrow's paper, we'll take a look at a small business in Whittier that started as part of a woman's dream to help grieving families bury their loved ones.

Ruth Turk, who owns a pair of flower shops in Whittier along with an antique store, opened a "casket showroom" three years ago because she saw so many of her clients rushed into decisions when planning funerals and memorial services.

Here's a sneak peak below:

WHITTIER -- One local woman doesn't just want to brighten your day with roses; she wants to help plan your funeral.
Ruth Turk's expertise is flowers, but her little shop on Workman Mill Road, called Rosemill, meant she saw many grieving families who came to her store looking for blooms to honor the dead.
After her own bout with breast cancer three years ago and planning her own funeral when faced with mortality, Turk, 63, said she felt even more for the grieving families she believed were mishandled by mortuaries and larger, one-stop shopping funeral services. So she decided to open her own small store, the Casket and Monument Co.
"I had no idea who I was going to run it," Turk said. "I just decided I was going to open it."
Turk has made a living as a florist in Whittier for more than 40 years and has two locations, Rosemill and Rosemill on the Boulevard, located on Whittier Boulevard. At the boulevard location, she was also business partners with her longtime "significant other," Charlie Sanford.
Sanford went in with her on the new casket business when the spot next to Rosemill on the Boulevard was available for rent. A friend, Heather Kobler, had recently retired and volunteered to manage the store.

For more on this story, check out Tuesday's Whittier Daily News.