Most people will never know his name.
Michael Collarone grew up in Brooklyn. There were so many Michaels around that everyone needed a nickname.
One wanted to join the Navy. One wanted to be a firefighter. Michael was the one who knew flowers.
So everyone called him Mikey Flowers.
He left home at 14. He worked part-time in a flower shop in Brooklyn Heights while also working in insurance. For a time, he was a pollution underwriter for AIG.
Then he chose flowers for good.
He opened Floratech in Tribeca and has been there for decades. Andy Warhol hired him because he loved the idea of a big Brooklyn guy on a Harley who knew roses and hydrangeas. He even did Harvey Keitel’s Christmas tree.
Then came 1993.
When a bomb tore through the World Trade Center, Mikey ran toward the chaos to help. He had no medical training.
After that day, he became an EMT because he never wanted to stand there helpless again.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the first plane flew over his shop on Beach Street.
He grabbed his medical bag and ran toward the towers.
He saw both planes strike.
He saw people jumping.
When the South Tower collapsed, he was trapped in the Winter Garden atrium, lying on the floor trying to breathe. A firefighter stepped on his arm as he was pulled from the rubble.
When the North Tower came down, he was on West Street.
He stayed at Ground Zero for weeks, doing medical recovery work in the Pit. Later, he helped maintain the makeshift memorials and cooked for the men still working in the wreckage.
He couldn’t save them that day.
But years later, he found another way to serve them.
When the 9/11 Memorial opened, a volunteer suggested placing a white rose on each victim’s name on their birthday.
The staff asked Mikey what he would charge for the flowers.
His answer?
Nothing.
He said whatever he couldn’t do with his medical skills on September 11, he could still do with flowers.
Every week, he donates 50 to 100 white roses.
Staff place them in the letters of the names engraved on the bronze parapets around the pools.
He kept sending them even when the memorial closed during COVID and his usual suppliers were shut down.
And he has even established a fund so the roses will continue arriving after he is gone.
He also wrote a book about what he saw and what he did: Mikey Flowers 9/11: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to DNA.
Never forget isn’t a slogan to Mikey Flowers.
It’s a promise.
A promise he’s kept for 25 years.
And every white rose is another reminder that the names of those 2,977 people will never be forgotten. ❤️🤍