A grieving Melbourne family could not believe their eyes when the funeral wreath showed up with a card reading: "rast in peas".
The card was hand-written by a local florist who delivered the flowers to the funeral of Josie Hankin at a cemetery in Springvale last week.
It was dedicated to "unty Josie" and appears to misspell "and family" as "dud family".
"We thought the flowers were lovely, but got a nasty shock when we read the card," Monique Bellow, great niece to Ms Hankin, told the local Moorabbin Kingston Leader newspaper.
"How could a florist get such a common phrase so wrong?"
Ms Bellow said her sister, who was very close to the great aunt, burst into tears when she read the card.
But the owner of the florist that delivered the wreath defended his staff.
Bunch After Bunch owner, who only gave his first name Arthur, said the employee who wrote the card was Russian and English was her second language.
"She's a great florist who has worked here since we started 15 years ago," he told ninemsn, adding that he apologised for the mistake and offered the family complimentary flowers.
Arthur said the misspelling could have been avoided if Ms Bellow came into the shop and wrote on the card herself or emailed the message through, like most customers do.
"What we're talking about is a beautiful wreath delivered directly to the cemetery chapel on time," he said.
"We don't normally write cards on behalf of other people. We can't take responsibility for misspellings," he said.
