When Karen and I started our business all those years ago, we had no way of knowing how deeply her influence would shape what it became. The kindness, steadiness, and quiet strength she brought into everything we did became the foundation of our company’s culture. Even now, her spirit is woven into every interaction, every decision, and every effort we make to lift people up.
Last week, at a major CPR conference, that truth was visible in the most meaningful way.
Our booth was popular — constant conversations, familiar faces, new connections. And right in the center of all that activity stood something gentle and unmistakably hers:
Karen’s Wildflower Station.
The stand wasn’t my idea; it was created by members of our team who never actually met Karen. They learned who she was through us — through the stories we tell, through the culture she left behind, through the way her memory quietly guides our work. Out of that connection, they designed the cart, decorated it with flowers, and stocked it with wildflower seed packets as a tribute to her.
When people asked about the display, I shared the meaning behind it:
Karen loved wildflowers — truly loved them. And near the end, as she battled cancer, she hoped to hold on long enough to see her wildflowers bloom one more time.
She did.
They bloomed.
And she passed away.
Every time I told that story at the booth, people softened. Some cried. Some hugged me. Others held their seed packet a little differently — with a kind of tenderness that told me they understood the weight of it.
Every time someone who knew Karen, or learns about her, sees a wildflower… they’ll think of her.
Her memory lives on in our business — in how we treat people, in the warmth we try to bring to our work, in the small touches we add simply because kindness matters.
And now it lives on even further, carried in pockets and purses, taken home to gardens and fields, scattered in places we may never see. Somewhere, wildflowers will bloom because someone heard her story and wanted to carry it forward.
Her legacy is still blooming.
And with every seed shared, it continues to spread — quietly, gently, beautifully — just the way she always lived.
❤️
How Beautiful!