On this day of Friday, April 8th I have written a very difficult letter. It is all below.
This is an open letter to our employee Margaret Curtis who is leaving us to go on to become a landscape designer and architect.
Well, what can we say? In December 2009, Margaret was just moving to Toronto after finishing university in Guelph.
This young 23 year old dropped off her resume to us.
We looked at it briefly and noticed how much work experience she had for her young years. She had an art background but to be honest, we might not have called her had she not done some of her schooling work experience at our friend’s design shop who she had no idea was our friend.
I called Julie and said what do you think about Maggie Curtis? Julie said, oh yes, a very smart talented person. She would be an asset to anyone.
We asked Maggie to come in and freelance a bit with us with hesitation because she didn’t have a ton of flower experience, but we said come in and let’s see what you can do with amaryllis.
She jumped right in and then after the holidays went to France to be an au pair for 6 months. She emailed us, but we really thought we would not see her again, but hoped we would because she was very creative and we of course liked that.
She came back and worked a bit part time and freelanced with us. She looked into a program with the government and then apprenticed with us, which then turned into full time……our very first official employee.
While conversing as you do to get to know someone, I asked, “what kind of music do you like?”
Her response in her sweet voice, “um, I really love Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin”. She even had blue suede shoes. It was just getting better by the second.
After almost squealing with delight, I said, “we will get along extremely well”. We have sung “Crawfish” many a time together and rather than drinking coffee at 3:00PM, the first chords of “Good Times, Bad Times” was our afternoon pick me up followed of course by the rest of the album…….Zeppelin 2
Margaret became a really good designer very quickly and yes, we have taught her well, she has also taught us a lot.
She has been with us through so much. We are of course so extremely sad that we will not see this stunningly beautiful person every day, we feel so very fortunate to have had her as part of our team.
We hope to creatively collaborate on a project one day.
We may not see Margaret anymore professionally (except for our workshops), but we now have a friendship bond which is so much more valuable.
Dear Margaret, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for creating with us for such a long time.
Now our Maggie who loves bunny rabbits, rock and roll, good food, art, gardening, travelling and is funny, sarcastic, kind and intelligent is now going off to build her future and become an amazing success.
You are so very special to us and always will be.
As sad as we are, we are also really excited. As Anne-Marie says often, “change is good Donkey”.
So, off you go our little sister, daughter and friend.
Find magic and share your magic with the world.
We hope every journey you go on is filled with excitement, knowledge, joy, love, laughter, bunny rabbits and really good food, chocolate, pastries and cake.
We wish you all the best young lady and we love you.
Your boss ladies,
Anne-Marie and Chrissy xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
