Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Brit Drozda.
Palm Beach, Florida-based singer-songwriter Brit Drozda shares “Flowers From Heaven,” a deeply personal and soulful pop-folk tribute born from the loss of her only brother and longtime musical collaborator, Virgil Price. Blending acoustic warmth with an evolving full-band arrangement, the song transforms profound grief into a hopeful meditation on connection, remembrance, and the signs that remind us the people we love may never truly leave us.
In the depths of her grief, Brit found herself scrolling through old text messages, searching for anything that might make her feel close to him again. There, she discovered two video messages Virgil had sent containing the beginnings of an unfinished song.
Music had always been central to their relationship. The siblings began writing together in high school and later reunited creatively at Davidson College, where Brit sang lead in Virgil’s band before the two eventually formed their own project, The Prices. Discovering his unfinished song offered Brit an unexpected opportunity to collaborate with her brother one final time.
Stream + share “Flowers From Heaven” now:
She tried repeatedly to finish it, but nothing felt right. Then, during one of the daily walks she had begun taking along a beach the siblings frequented during high school, something changed.
“One day, I stumbled upon a red rose that had washed up,” Brit recalls. “It was still fragrant. I thought to myself, and said out loud, ‘Are there flowers in heaven?’”
The phrase immediately struck her as a song lyric. Brit wrote it into her phone and turned around to retrace her path along the shoreline. As she walked back, two long-stemmed hot pink carnations washed up at her feet.
“It was as if Virgil was responding to my question,” she says. “I have seen signs from him and felt his presence as I’ve moved through life after his passing. These signs make me hopeful that we are still connected and that he is at peace.”
That experience became the emotional centre of the song, allowing Brit to approach Virgil’s unfinished music from a place of hope rather than grief alone. Written on her brother’s piano and incorporating the piano part he originally created, “Flowers From Heaven” became both a tribute and a final collaboration between two siblings whose relationship had always been intertwined with music.
The song also reunited Brit with acclaimed producer Scott Jacoby (Coldplay, Vampire Weekend, Sia), whose sensitivity became especially important given the deeply personal nature of the recording. The pair had previously worked together on Brit’s 2019 EP, Seashells & Stories.
“As a producer, he is able to sonically create such a wide range of emotion and sound with how he captures my vocals and the instrumentation,” Brit shares. “I was also able to be vulnerable and to have someone who would help me honour my brother while working in an emotionally delicate state. I’m grateful to Scott for helping me create something I know Virgil would’ve been proud of.”
My musical choice is:
“Stars” by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. This song is a melancholy song that speaks to the experience of grieving. It helped me process loss and feel a little less alone in grief. Grace’s voice is so powerful and cathartic. A friend shared this song with me and it resonated so much after experiencing the loss of my brother. There’s so much mystery and heartbreak when a person moves on from this world into the next, and this song really speaks to that.
My Visual:
Poem by Mary Oliver
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver is a poem that connects a reader to their inner voice and teaches us to look to nature to lift us from the throes of a dark time. The world can be harsh but this poem allows the reader to feel a little less alone carrying that. The wild geese image lifts us from where we are to “high in the clean blue air.”
Tea:
Peppermint Tea: A soothing lift to calm an aching heart.
