My Story

I started working when I was 10 years old and held a “job” until 2021, that in itself has been a long journey

I always thought of a job as a means to get what I wanted and desired. I wanted a bicycle when I was 10 years old and I saved up enough money to buy the coolest, orange, 10 speed Schwin bicycle. I rode my bicycle everywhere that my parents would allow and it gave me such freedom. When I turned 16, I was worked to be able to buy a car and it gave me the same freedom as my bicycle did a few years earlier. I continued to work and when I turned 30, I started my career in the corporate medical world and continued on that journey for the next 30 years. I worked a job to financially help support my family. Again, that is what I “desired”.....

Then in March of 2021, I introduced “me” to “myself”. That is when I found true freedom! I had not been happy in my career but had no intention of doing anything different. I figured that I needed to continue working to be able to provide income as well as insurance for my husband and I. However, in January a few months earlier, I lost my job. It was devastating but nothing compared to the year before.

In May of 2020, my daughter died of a rare form of cancer. She was only 34 years old and had a 9 year old son. I watched her pain through that journey as well as her pain and fears for two and and a half years before that. There was absolutely nothing that I could do to save her but as her mother, I wish that I could have taken that from her. I witnessed both her first and last breath on this earth. Thank goodness that not everyone goes through that but for that I am grateful because not everyone gets to experience someone’s circle of life. Whether or not that was a blessing or curse, I started to feel differently about life.

I did a lot of praying, soul searching and during that time leaning on Psalms 46:10 “Be Still and know that I am God”. I am not very good at being still but I did it, and at that point, my new business began to unfold before my eyes

How my business came to be

I knew that I had always had a true love to design flowers. It gives me that inner happiness that is hard to describe.

The name Forget Me Not Floral and Design..... was to honor my daughter Ashley. It wasn't on purpose, it just happened. It means true love and respect and it represents a promise that we will always remember those that we have lost and will keep them in our thoughts. I add a seed packet of Forget Me Not seeds to every arrangement. How amazing would it be to have them come up everywhere that we have planted them as a reminder of those we've lost.

Blue Dragonfly’s meaning which is the symbol of my company is means : Hope, Change and Love

While In Chicago for 6 weeks during my daughter's radiation and chemotherapy, my grandson came to visit. We were at the “Bean” at Millenium Park. A navy blue dragonfly landed on his shoulder. It stayed there for hours while we walked to see the sights. I was pretty sure that it had died on his shoulder but when we reached the hotel lobby, it flew away.

That happened two years before I started my business start to unfold. It is a pretty amazing journey and that's just the beginning. As well as doing what I truly love, I am able to also honor my daughter’s wishes to ensure that every cancer patient that I know of who is alone and has no-one in their life for support, receives a bouquet of flowers from my company to lift them up and it will be delivered anonymously from my daughter.. That is what she would have wanted!

I love what my business stands for. The gift of flowers. A Welcome Surprise. It brightens the day of three people. The giver, the recipient and me, the designer.

Thank You.