Valentine's Season Interrupted After Driver Damages Flower Shop

By Craig Day, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Employees at a West Tulsa business are cleaning up after a car slammed through the glass front of the building. The car, driven by a woman in her 80s, ended up right in the middle of the store.

Neither the driver nor anyone in Sue's Westside Flower Garden at 6161 South 33^rd West Avenue was hurt. It was a shock for everyone, though, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time for the business owner.

Even on one of her worst days, it would be hard to find someone more positive than Sue Prater.

"I think we'll be ok," said the owner of Sue's Westside Flower Garden.

"This just gives us a new perspective on drive-in flower shops. Drive-in flowers," Prater said. "I just want her to be ok."

Prater was behind the counter at Sue's Westside Flower Garden when the car slammed through the front glass.

"The noise was just, it took my breath away," Prater said. "I didn't know what was happening. I couldn't think. I couldn't move; I couldn't anything. I was just ‘aaugh.'"

The driver, 82-year-old Patsy Marsh, was on her way to the beauty shop next door. When her husband Roy got the call about what happened, he was worried.

"I thank the good Lord she's not hurt," said Roy Marsh.

Police believe she hit the gas instead of the brake.

"I'm fine. Just fine," Prater assured a bystander.

For flower shop owner Sue Prater, it was scary.

"You know I don't have any blood pressure problems at all, but I thought the top of my head was coming off," Prater said.

And the accident couldn't have come at a worse time. With a down economy, and just 10 days from Valentine's Day, it's make-or-break time in the flower business.

"She's ok, and I'm ok and this is stuff. Yeah it came at a bad time, but it's stuff," said Sue Prater of Sue's Westside Flower Garden.

Now family and friends are busy cleaning up all that stuff.

Despite the damage, Prater is keeping her positive outlook.

"We'll just get started, and we'll get it all back together and move on," she said. "We'll have Valentine's Day, and we will thank God every minute that that little lady is ok."

The flower shop will be open for business Friday and will keep taking its valentines orders as planned.