DEC 13, 2017 – We’re guessing your Inbox looks about like ours these days, full of Great Deals! and Flash Sales! So when we were tempted to promote Our Magnets Make Great Last-Minute Stocking Stuffers! we put it to a staff vote. Hands-down we decided to write about something that means more to our Cardies: Kindness and consideration …It was Retail Partner Gail Walker of Northwest Nazarene University Bookstore in Nampa, ID, who so impressed upon us the need for Grief Support cards that we were honored to comply. In the process, Gail said what became the tender message on the first card you’ll see below.
Retail Partner Gail Walker
Because the holidays, as well as the anniversaries of a death, can be especially tough times for some people, Gail confirmed, “It’s important to let them know that we’re remembering with them. I’m very familiar with grief,” she shared with us, “and, therefore, try to reach out to those going through it.“We need to support each other on this road that is so difficult to walk. Society tells us that we should put a time limit on our grief,” Gail said, “but, in reality, grieving never really ends, because love doesn’t.
Cardie Amy Beamer Murray
Cardie Amy Beamer Murray reinforced that same feeling in a sweet email earlier this year. “The winter after my dad died, I noticed that my backyard feeders were filled with cardinals. My sister told me the story of how cardinals represent our loved ones who have passed. Ever since, when someone I know has lost a loved one, I send them the Meanings of Life cardinal card around three months later, as part of what I call ‘after care.’ After the funeral has long since passed, and the phone calls are fewer and farther between, when there has been no sign of a floral arrangement or casserole in weeks, but the burden of grief is still so heavy you can physically feel it … that’s when I send the cardinal card.”
Of course people needn’t have lost a loved one to feel like they could use some TLC this time of year. Like the family friend of Cardie Donna Bonus, who has received cards from Donna “as he suffers with debilitating depression.” Our own Meanings of Life illustrator Joanne Friar, who painted the cardinal card … she and her “big-hearted brother” will spend the holidays — as they do every day — keeping an eye on their parents, who are both struggling with Alzheimer’s. And consider the four friends of our Customer Care Manager Reet Rawdin, who were just diagnosed with breast cancer.
This is all to say, it will not be possible for some people to be all happy happy full of cheer over the holidays. But it is quite possible for them to feel more loved and supported by those of us who show we care. If you want to give some thought to whose spirits you might lift with our little cardinal card, we’ll slip one FREE into every order until the end of the year.
As always, thanks for being the sort of person who “gets” this message, in every sense of the word.
founder & chief creative
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