Andrée Maslek, the namesake and founder of Andrée’s Florist in Greenfield, died on Saturday at the age of 80. Her daughters say she treated customers like family.
Submitted Photo
GREENFIELD – Andrée Maslek, the namesake and founder of Andrée’s Florist in Greenfield, died on Saturday after a lengthy illness.
Since then, devoted customers and friends have been reaching out to her two daughters – who run the floral shop – to express their love for a woman who treated strangers like family.
“She loved kids, and she had several people come in with kids who wanted to buy flowers for their mom. She would never let them leave empty handed, no matter how much money they had,” recalled her eldest daughter, Janet Stults.
Her mother had a passion for flowers all her life and worked at a number of floral shops before opening her own in 1988 at 16 W. Main St. in the heart of downtown Greenfield.
The shop has changed location twice over the years – moving to a three-story building at the southeast corner of Main Street and American Legion Place before settling at its current location at 17 W. North St.
Maslek hadn’t worked at the shop for several years now due to declining health, but Stults said customers have never forgotten her mother’s kindness.
“She made so many friends and acquaintances over the years, and people that kind of became like family. She was warm and welcoming with everybody,” she said.
“We’ve had several people that we’ve done weddings for in the early days, and then they come back in with their kids for prom or when their kids get married. We have one girl who always comes back, even though she lives in Noblesville now, because she never forgot the way she was treated here by my mom as a kid.”
Stults said her mother lived a rich life over the past 80 years, achieving her dream of opening a floral shop with her husband, Paul, in 1988.
“She had a teacher in high school that told her that her name would one day be up in lights or on a sign somewhere, so I know that made her happy,” her daughter recalled.
Maslek was born in Valenciennes, France during World War II and was proud of her French heritage, according to family.
She came to the United States in 1947 knowing very little English and later graduated from high school in Gary. It was in Gary that she married her husband, Paul, in 1963.
Their daughters were in their early 20s when the couple decided to make the leap and open up their own floral shop. Living in Indianapolis at the time, “they decided to research surrounding areas and decided there was a nice community in Greenfield, so they thought they’d give it a go,” Stults recalled.
Her sister, Janet Maslek, long admired her mother’s talent with flowers, and just about anything else she touched.
“She was just an incredible woman with so much creativity. The floral designs and decorations she made were amazing, but she could do so much more than that. She could sew, she could cook, she could cut your hair. She could do it all,” she said.
Opening the shop was their mother’s lifelong dream, said the sisters, who are thrilled to be able to carry on their mother’s footsteps.
“I couldn’t think of a better way to honor her than to carry on her dream,” Stults said.
Visitation for Maslek will be 4-8 p.m. today (Friday, June 3) at Erlewein Mortuary & Crematory, at 1484 W. U.S. 40 in Greenfield. A funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 4 at the mortuary.
Memorial contributions can be mailed to: Bentley’s Buddy & Friends, 1220 W. Main St., Greenfield, IN 46140; or Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center, 953 W. North St., Greenfield, IN 46140.
