Moving tributes have been paid to a popular florist who has died after helping hundreds of people through both sad times and celebrations over more than 60 years.
Stephen Wharram was a familiar, welcoming face in his flower shop on North Gate in Hessle for no less than 63 years, starting in the shop under its former owners when he was just 15 years old. He had been born into a family which lived for bringing blooms to its community in need, as the youngest of four boys all of whom ended up running florists of their own under the Wharram family name, following in their mother Mary’s footsteps.
Over the years, Stephen was there to lend a shoulder to cry on when customers were planning funerals, and to celebrate with them when they were booking in bouquets for weddings and birthdays. The much-loved family man and respected Hessle businessman only retired last year – when his niece Sally, also a florist, took over the North Gate shop.
However, Stephen had been given a devastating cancer diagnosis just months ago, and he passed away at the age of 79. His niece Sally, 59, told how her uncle was a respected figure in Hessle and throughout the floristry world, enthusing how floristry was not just his career, but his lifelong passion.
She said: “We’re going to miss him more than words can ever truly express. Over the years, he became a familiar and much-loved face to generations of local people, creating flowers for weddings, birthdays, celebrations, and funerals. He was admired not only for his talent and dedication, but also for his kindness, warmth, and hard work.”
Sally told how he underwent an operation in January following a cancer diagnosis and he had been given the all-clear. However, at the start of the month he died just weeks after being told it had returned.
She said: “For as long as I can remember, it’s been Stephen and his flower shop. He started there at just 15 and never left, giving it everything he had every bouquet, every conversation, every single day. It wasn’t just work to him, it was who he was. He was 23 when he took it over, when it became Wharrams Florists, and he’s been there ever since.
“The Wharram family has always been florists. My grandma Mary was big on Hessle Road, and there were four boys. One moved to Australia and the other three stayed in Hull, and we all had flower businesses separately, two each at one time. I’m the only one left now which is quite sad. But way the world is, we’re lucky to have little shops around as it is, aren’t we?
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“So many people will remember walking through that door and being greeted with Stephen’s warmth, his kindness, that familiar smile and that laugh. But to me, he was so much more than that. He was someone I’ve looked up to all my life. Gentle, hard-working, full of strength and always up for a wind up – a true Wharram boy!
“He had a way of making people feel welcome, cared for, and important whether in the shop or at home with family and friends. The shop was his pride and joy, and I’m going to do everything I can to carry it on for him. I know how much it meant to him and I hope to keep that same spirit alive in everything we do.”
On the day of the funeral Stephen will be taken on his final journey past his Ferriby house, past the North Gate shop and then onto the funeral service at Haltemprice Crematorium in Willerby. Sally added that the family firm will of course be putting all the floral displays for her uncle.
She said: “I’ve told them all – even the ones that aren’t florists anymore and have got married or retired or gone into something else – that they’re all coming back to help me. The cortege will go through Hessle and past the shop, which I am now having to keep open before jumping in my car to go to the funeral because he would absolutely go mad if I had the door shut.
“He was definitely a character. Everybody loved him to bits.”
Stephen Wharram leaves behind his wife Diane, two children, Victoria and Richard, and four grandchildren. The funeral takes place on Friday, June 5 at 3.30pm at Haltemprice Crematorium.
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