The Greenhouse Odyssey: Twelve-A Love Letter
May 13, 2024
Dear Kathy,
Do you remember starting work on my birthday? It was October of 1989 and you walked into Cactus & Tropicals and my life just in the nick of time. What a gift you were! We were going through huge growth and change, with one building under construction and another being raised. One greenhouse over here, two more over there. Over one hundred commercial plant maintenance accounts were multiplying by the day. You were hired to be a plant maintenance technician and you hit the ground running.
It didn’t take long to see who you were: kind, soft-spoken, honest, dependable, generous and smart. You were totally you, grabbing at life with both hands.
You joined a good staff. There were people who loved plants and the business but none of them had thoughts about growing the business itself, an idea that was beginning to consume me. After fourteen years, Cactus & Tropicals was taking shape and form, replacing its training wheels with wings and a propellor. We were inching our way towards being a more professional business with a community presence. I wanted to strengthen that and I realized I needed a co-pilot.
We spent many hours together sitting beside the small pond in my backyard, hashing out problems and coming up with better ways of doing things. Somewhere along the line, we coined the phrase ‘Think of Everything.’ It was then that you became my closest confidante in sharing my business dreams. Perhaps your own entrepreneurial juices were simmering.
Happy Birthday! I’m grateful for our thirty-five years together. I celebrate your deepened wisdom and judgment, your constant excitement and curiosity about life and your natural leadership skills motivated by compassion and example. What a joy to see you with a family of your own, a beautiful partner and two sons. How proud I am that you have taken life by the scruff of the neck and made it beautiful. How right that you are the manager of Cactus & Tropicals!
