Discover the wild rose.

If you knew me growing up, there is a good chance you remember my grandma. She drove me (and quite a few of my friends) everywhere before I got my driver’s license. This meant we spent a lot of time together. I want to tell you these were all happy memories, but the reality is they weren’t.

My grandma and I were a lot a like. Maybe it was because we spent so much time together or maybe it was our genes. Whatever it was, as I got older, we butted heads all the time. I never felt good enough and she was a clever critic. We spent hours driving around our small town and the countryside sometimes arguing, sometimes in silence.

To be fair, I was a surly, angsty teen who had no clue how sick my grandma actually was.

One memory does outshine the dark and gloomy ones. When I was little, probably about my son’s age now, there was nothing better than a summer afternoon spent driving along the dirt roads searching for wild roses with my grandma. I remember the hot and dusty sunshine as we’d pull over to the side of the road and carefully pick a light pink gem poking out among the waving grass. We would take the roses home and press them between the pages of the thick, heavy Sears catalog.

Years after my grandma died, I remember finding the frail, pressed flowers in the old catalogs. We were cleaning some things out of her office, and I was comforted to see she had kept them all those years. I realized that memory must have meant just as much to her as it did to me.

We were all surprised when she died at the age of 67. It blindsided our family like a freight train. At 17, I didn't understand the toll unmanaged diabetes, high blood pressure and anxiety take on person’s body. I can imagine now that my grandma felt pretty sick and miserable most of the time and that made it hard for her to deal with my teenage garbage.

I think my grandma would be proud to know Wild Rose Health Coaching started because of her. I think she would be happy to know our shared memory inspired the name and her health struggles inspired my purpose.

You might know a grandma like mine. Someone who is loving, caring and has a big, open heart, and she can’t be who she is all the time because she doesn’t feel good. Maybe you’re thinking of your mom, your aunt or your sister. Or maybe it’s you.

That’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m writing these incredibly difficult words. I wish my grandma could have come to my graduation, to my wedding, met my son. I know health coaching can’t change any of that, but it might make a difference for another grandma. Or granddaughter.