I LOVE to buy flowers - but for the living, not the dead.

They are meant to be removed from their wrappings, placed in water and arranged for their recipients to enjoy.

Am I alone in feeling ambivalent at the sight of all those hundreds of thousands of floral tributes piled high on pavements, languishing in their polythene packaging, condemned to wilt and rot unseen?

Would not people's hard-earned money be better spent on charitable donations in memory of loved ones rather than to enrich a few flower-growers and sellers?

KEITH ELLEL, Westwood Avenue, Rishton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.