She might have chosen other forms of employment.

The flower shop was, apparently, the right kind of work for her — the kind that provided both sufficient income and sufficient mental latitude for the inventive thinking that was the other major dimension of her working life.

Understanding the flower shop this way — as a life work in its own right, not merely as the funding mechanism for an invention career — gives a fuller picture of Mary Kenner.

She was both a florist and an inventor, and the two things were not entirely separate.