Dear Heloise: I’m loving all the ideas that you are receiving about flowers and funerals. I just wanted to give you another idea:

A dear friend of my mother’s sent a planter of bulbs for my mother’s funeral this past February. The flowers were beautiful and bright at that time of year, and then I planted them out in our backyard. Every year for the past 15 years, these flowers have come up and multiplied. It’s a wonderful reminder of my mother and her dear friend. — Lisa F., in Jacksonville, Illinois

AVOIDING AN INJURY

Dear Heloise: Thank you for the opportunity to write. Your column is wonderful! When I see people cradling their cellphones between their ears and shoulders, I absolutely cringe. I’m retired, but my job required me to do a lot of tasks. And of course, I was on the phone a lot.

I used a corded phone and did the same thing — I cradled my phone between my ear and shoulder so that I could use my hands. This caught up with me, and I had to go through a lot of physical therapy and take medication for the damage that occurred in my neck/shoulder. Even now, I still have problems.

To avoid injuries, we purchased headsets (now they would be called Bluetooth earphones) for my employees. I can’t imagine how much strain is caused by trying to keep your cellphone from falling. Please let your readers know that it’s not worth it. — Fran, in Colorado Springs, Colorado

POWDERED

DETERGENT

Dear Heloise: My laundry used to stink after I washed it, and I finally found out that it was caused by the minerals in my well water reacting to the fats that are part of liquid laundry detergent. I switched to powdered laundry detergent, and the problem was solved.

Another advantage to using powdered detergent is that it comes in a cardboard box, which is easily burned in my wood stove. The plastic detergent bottles create a waste problem because plastic does not recycle well. Also, it takes less powdered detergent for a load of laundry, so the box lasts for a long time. — Kathy, in Michigan