So dead for 1 week: sympathy card
dead for three months: thinking of you card
dead for 15 months, rising from the grave and eating brains: fruit basket.
The original question was beautifully answered, but I had to toss this in.
I know some people who knew a teenager who died in an accident some years back.
They still send flowers to his parents each year for his birthday.
Even after all this time, it still makes his parents feel better, to know that someone else remembers and misses their son.
I would say no. It is the thought that counts.
True story. My client who is almost 90 got a late sympathy card from a former landlord! I mean it had to be years ago when she was newly married. He lives in a different part of the state so it may have taken him a while to find out her husband passed.
The strange part she said was that this landlord treated them awful. He would not turn up the heat when they had a new baby until she put her foot down. The landlord would never speak to them outside. Still 50 years later he sends his condolences.