Sweet Elise

My sweet Elise is gone. For those who may have met her at the Phipps Plaza store, she was the sweet Lady quietly helping out around the store, organizing and labeling every.single.thing. in our storage area and cleaning up in the kitchen so it sparkled like her kitchen at home. She gave me the idea of putting those half-circles on the sides of our custom boxes so they could slide open easily. She helped us settle into our new studio and didn't stop telling me how much she loved the space. All that labeling sure came to good use during our move.

To me and my three sisters, she was our precious gift. We are so proud to have had her as a mother. I can’t wait to pull up pictures of birthday cakes she baked for us when we were kids. Our birthdays were such a big deal to her. I remember she had to go out of town for work on my tenth birthday. Before she left, she made sure everything was set, my outfits (I had options, y'all), the food, the party favors, the activities, the cake, everything. At the time, I was sad that she wouldn't be there, but at the same time, I was excited because she'd planned this big 'ole party for me. She ended up making it back into town on my birthday (only God knows how she pulled it off) and my joy knew no bounds. It was an amazing party! She’s the reason I wanted to grow up and do the same for my children. We were the ‘big cake house’ growing up. The one where you always got a big piece of cake at birthday parties.

To be honest, I have thought about closing up shop to deal with everything. It seems so hard when you’re going through something like this. However, this past week, between shifts at the hospital, I found it healing to be able to frost and decorate cupcakes at the studio before rushing back to take over from my sisters. I loooooooooooooove my mommy. Ugh! It hurts! At the same time, my mom loved to say “be positive”, so I will. Je t’adore Maman et je t’aime.