Indy shops prepare flowers for Lt. Allan’s funeral
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A community is preparing to lay to rest Southport police Lt. Aaron Allan, who was shot and killed in the line of duty.
The visitation will take place Friday at Crown Hill Funeral Home from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. A celebration of life is scheduled for Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse at 11 a.m.
Flower shops across the Indianapolis have been working to fill orders for Allan’s funeral.
One shop even received an order from the New York Yankees, demonstrating the amount of support Allan’s family is receiving from people across the country.
“The flowers are definitely an expression, and it helps brings warmth to a bad time,” said Steve Huth, the vice president of Steve’s Flowers and Gifts.
Inside the design room at Steve’s Flowers and Gifts on the city’s south side, designers are putting together the final touches for sympathy and memorial flowers going out to the family of Allan.
“A lot of these are going out in blues and whites because it represents the policeman, so in this case they wanted red involved, too,” said Kristina Meyers, who is a designer at the shop.
Meyers said the color red has a special meaning.
“You know red is love, so we want to make sure the family know he’s been loved,” she said.
Meyers is a longtime designer at the shop. She’s been working on a lot of the flower arrangements for the lieutenant’s funeral.
“We probably have a dozen or more that we’ve done for him here in the shop, and we’ll probably do even more because there are stacks of orders over there that we’re going to be filling for him,” she explained.
Meyers did not know Allan personally but was left with a heavy heart when she heard he was shot and killed while trying to help someone.
“One of the girls that day was actually trying to come back from lunch; she was like, ‘I don’t know what just happened, but there’s like 13 police cars that just passed and two ambulances,’ and then we found out it was him,” she said.
Meyers is hoping these flowers can provide the family with some sort of comfort.
“When it comes down to it, that little boy lost his dad, and the wife, she lost her husband, and yes he’s a police officer, and everybody will miss him,” she said.
For the funeral of IMPD Dep. Chief Jim Waters, the owner of the flower shop told 24-Hour News 8 the NFL combine sent in an order for Waters’ family.