Phoenix florist donates to hospital that cared for late police officer

Phoenix flower ship gives back to the community post Valentine's Day

To many people, Valentine's Day is a time for flowers, and now that Valentine's Day has come and gone, a Phoenix area flower shop is giving back to the local community who helps others in their time of need. FOX 10's Stephanie Bennett reports.

PHOENIX - Now that Valentine's Day has come and gone, one Phoenix florist is wanting to give back to the local community.

"In the past, we have done some donations to St. Vincent de Paul, Phoenix Dream Center," said Cheryl Denham with the Arizona Flower Market. "Today, we chose St. Joseph's Hospital. The reason we chose St. Joseph's Hospital today was because our dear brother, Officer Ben Denham, passed away a week ago from some autoimmune diseases that he had been battling."

The staff at st. Joseph’s hospital helped care for Denham, who was with the Phoenix Police Department. They say the hospital was instrumental in saving his life in 2016, so they could have more time with him.

On Feb. 17, Officer Denham's brother, father, nephew, and wife 27 years. Debbie. were all in attendance to hand out the flowers to his medical team.

"No matter who it is and what it is, he’s there, and that’s why I came here," said Debbie. "My husband would want me to be here, and I came because I wanted to, but also because I knew he wanted me to."

"This is just a small little token of how much our family just truly loves and appreciates everything that everyone did here for him and for our family," said Cheryl.

"These families in the ICU, the families become part of our families, and I think you take home a lot of those stresses, and we take on what they are going through, and it’s a lot to handle sometimes, but just getting to do these things afterwards, it really just brings peace to everything," said Devyn Wengraf, a registered Trauma ICU nurse.

The team is also donating flowers to another Phoenix Police officer who passed away recently.