Small papers are pinned to the cross at Atrium Florist & Gifts in Clinton as an opportunity to pray and be in prayer for others in need.
                                 Emily M. Williams | Sampson Independent

Small papers are pinned to the cross at Atrium Florist & Gifts in Clinton as an opportunity to pray and be in prayer for others in need.

Emily M. Williams | Sampson Independent

<p>Atrium Florist & Gifts has a display up front with the prayer cross and other items for sale.</p>
                                 <p>Emily M. Williams | Sampson Independent</p>

Atrium Florist & Gifts has a display up front with the prayer cross and other items for sale.

Emily M. Williams | Sampson Independent

<p>Connie Miller, left, and Makenzie King say that the cross is welcome reminder of their faith, and that they hope to continue to share it with others at Atrium Florist. Not pictured are Shawn Purdie and Michelle Pietrolaj.</p>
                                 <p>Emily M. Williams | Sampson Independent</p>

Connie Miller, left, and Makenzie King say that the cross is welcome reminder of their faith, and that they hope to continue to share it with others at Atrium Florist. Not pictured are Shawn Purdie and Michelle Pietrolaj.

Emily M. Williams | Sampson Independent

CLINTON — Prayer changes things.

We’ve all heard that saying at some point, and the ladies working at Atrium Florist & Gifts are quick to share their personal stories of exactly how that has happened for them, and others.

And that is something they are ready to give back to the community.

“We have been having so much negativity,” said Michelle Pietrolaj, owner.

Pietrolaj said that with the pandemic, and everything going on in the world right now, people need to find the positive.

“We feel like so many times God just shows us signs,” she said. “He really does.”

With her business, Pietrolaj says that they have both the happiness and the sadness, and sometimes in between. Happiness in weddings and all that a couple experiences in creating a new life together — sadness in watching people grieve throughout the time around a funeral.

There have been times where they just spoke of something and it happened.

“A lady came in the other day, she was in an accident and left for dead,” Pietrolaj said. “She had visited a few days after we had put the cross up.”

Just prior to that, Pietrolaj said she was talking with Connie Miller, who works at the Atrium, and was telling Miller who the lady was. Pietrolaj said she even told Miller she had hoped to see her again.

“And she just suddenly showed up,” said Pietrolaj. “So we decided that we needed to post something positive.”

So she went to Facebook and wrote a post about how this lady came back into her life, yet again. Initially she had met the lady about 14 years ago, and she said that “she would come to the florist often she had such a sweet spirit.”

“Then suddenly I didn’t see her anymore. One night I was watching the news they were telling of a horrific single car accident in Kenansville. Suddenly I realized it was her. The accident happened 13 years ago.”

Pietrolaj said her possibility of survival was not good at all.

“But God showed up,” she said.

She had seen the lady twice since then, with this encounter being one. Pietrolaj walked back into the shop from an appointment, and the lady was there.

“I was so beside myself and so was Connie,” she said. “We were speechless. God’s timing is so good and is always perfect.”

A lot of times people don’t know how to pray when they get into situations, and that can be even more difficult when someone is overwhelmed with grief or dealing with anxiety.

“They just don’t know how, and they can write it easy,” she said. “We decided to put up the cross, and they can write their prayer and pin it to the cross.”

This led them to go even further and start having an afternoon of prayer every month. Yet no matter the adversity, the ladies cling to the fact that God has been good to them.

“Much more than we even really deserve,” Pietrolaj said.

“This has been through this whole pandemic,” said Miller.

“We have just been blessed,” Pietrolaj said.

She said that she usually doesn’t go on deliveries, and in the past few weeks she’s picked them up and taken them, and that it’s been at just the right time.

“It was right then that somebody needed somebody,” Pietrolaj said.

Even recently she went to the house of a lady who was legally blind, and Pietrolaj said the lady was just so happy, and it made Pietrolaj realize that her work wasn’t just in the shop.

Makenzie King recalled when Tammy Pope came in. She had just received a cancer diagnosis. She had also just lost her father-in-law.

“It was special because someone was going through something like that and then had death on top of it,” said Miller.

“We saw her going through breast cancer, having surgery, and then the next day going to her father-in-law’s funeral,” Pietrolaj explained.

“We have just seen so much,” she said. “We have seen them young.”

Pietrolaj said recently an encounter with a family they knew personally really touched them all, and it caused her to do something she never expected to do. Their 22-year-old son had just passed away.

She told Miller that it was eating at her conscience and she had to do something about it.

“And we never close for anything here, but I said Connie, we are going to lock the door, and we are going somewhere,” said Pietrolaj. “Connie looked at me like I was absolutely crazy.”

“I said we are going to his home and visit … I said it is just eating me alive.”

She felt the urge to do it, and later found it was exactly at the right time.

King said that there’s been a few moments recently that have really touched her, one of which was when they were putting up the cross and one of their favorite songs came on. The song is one that was very rarely played on the radio, but it just happened to come on then.

“The song is called ‘Scars in Heaven,’” Pietrolaj said. “And it really brought that young guy to my mind.”

Pietrolaj said they will be posting the prayer time on social media.

“We invite everyone to come, even if they are not purchasing anything, to come in and stop by and pin their prayer to the cross.”

Reach Emily M. Williams at 910-590-9488. Follow her on Twitter at @NCNewsWriter. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd and like us on Facebook.