I wanted to share about how my late mother's memory inspired a family business, Rudolph's Bluebird Houses, and united our community as we work through our grief.
My mother, Pat, was an amazing woman. A fiercely devoted mom to me and my siblings and an OB nurse for over 15 years. She was willing to help anyone and everyone.
In 2004 she beat breast cancer, but it came back — this time, as a brain tumor in 2016. My mother could have handled her diagnosis differently and felt sorry for herself, but she always remained positive.
My mother fought hard, but eventually lost her battle.
After her death, our family struggled to cope — especially my father. My mother Pat and my father Ron were married for over 35 years and very much in love. With the kids out of the house, he had trouble sleeping. One restless night, he got out of bed and headed to his workshop. He said at that moment, he just started cutting pieces of wood to build a bluebird birdhouses, my mother's favorite bird.
At first, we weren't sure what to do with the houses — it was just my father's way to honor my mom and cope with her passing. Then, I realized we could spread her message by giving away the houses, so I began selling them on Facebook Marketplace — and everything took off from there.
Once word got out, people started asking for 5-6 houses at a time! Facebook Marketplace helped us build our project to the point that our entire family is now involved. My dad, children and grandfather help assemble the houses and I coordinate the orders and delivery. We never expected this project, which was helping our family cope with incredible loss, would lead to such an outpouring of support — we've seen orders come from as far away as Hawaii! To date, we've sold over 1,000 birdhouses.
It's been amazing to witness the incredible community that has developed through selling the birdhouses on Facebook. Everyone has been affected by loss and grief, and it's been a healing process to connect with people, some complete strangers, over that shared experience.
We've also been able to donate some of the proceeds to the hospice home where my mother spent her last weeks. We've learned so much from our customers. One recent customer bought five kits for her kids. Her husband is battling cancer and she gave us a check for $100. She said she knew it was much more than the price of the kits, but wanted to give back.
I'm hoping we can inspire someone else by sharing this story. This is bigger than birdhouses.
-Kristy Boike
