A Purple Heart for A Loving and Lasting Remembrance

It’s tax time and you’d think I’d already know the number of purple hearts I had on hand, but my husband has been ill and no longer driving so I have been taking him back and forth to doctors for over a month. I’d forgotten about doing inventory until gently reminded by my accountant that it was, “important to complete before the end of January.”

A week ago when checking phone messages I had received two saying, “Please call me ASAP. I want to make a substantial order of your purple hearts.” I was prepared to receive an order for perhaps 35-50, but she said, “I…

“I need 300 purple Hide A Hearts.” What!? Clearly this is NOT the response of a veteran biz owner! In fact my eldest and successful businessman son chided that I should have responded, ‘Well, we usually receive orders in the 1000’s, but for you…..” 

“What!?” I repeated and she chuckled then repeated. “I need 300 of your purple hearts for my mother’s funeral.” OMGosh!

I was speechless for a moment and then said, “I’ll need to see if I have that many hearts on hand. May I call you back?” I sat in the chair trying to collect myself and wondering what to do next.

I told myself, “The first thing to do is to begin counting.” Then I searched for every purple heart any where one might be kept in the HAH office, my car, my husband’s car, or set aside for samples. If necessary, I was even prepared to ‘cannibalize’ the ones already packaged for Etsy listings but unable to touch those set aside for a month’s worth of potential orders from HGS.com.

As an observer you would have been amused to see me literally flitting from one corner of the house and garage to the other, piling up the inventory and counting breathlessly! Bingo! I had enough to fill the order but it would leave any other Hide A Heart customer for the month reading ‘out of stock’ of purple hearts on the web site and Etsy Shop!

“Yes, we can fill your order,” I said calmly and then said,”May I ask how you heard about Hide A Heart?” She had ordered a purple heart for her mother from one of my affiliate partners HGS.com, “but my mother isn’t going to make it and I’m keeping that heart for myself.” She told me that she wanted to give everyone who attended her mother’s service a remembrance and she thought the purple heart would be perfect.

I listened carefully to all her wishes and we worked out the details for the order:

• Definitely a ribbon rose enhancement
• Definitely her mother’s name added to the side of the heart
• Definitely the Sympathy Purple Heart Story card
• Definitely cello wrapped with purple heart and angel confetti
  
• Definitely she needed the order in 10 days–200 shipped ASAP with the other 100 soon to follow
  

What? If you don’t already know, I AM the only Hide A Heart employee! How was I going to inscribe, package and ship 300 purple hearts to arrive in 10 days? “You’re going to have your hands full aren’t you?” I immediately sent 3 friends the text ‘Got 300 heart order! Can U H-E-L-P!!! on Saturday?’

I grabbed the heart paper punch and purple card stock and asked my husband if he could begin punching some hearts. When his hand grew tired, I conscripted my son to punch hearts. When his hand fatigued, I punched hearts!

I checked the ink levels and set the printer to begin copying 300 Sympathy Purple Heart Story cards, then cleared the kitchen table, set out the purple hearts, grabbed the 18K gold ink pen and began.

With each inscription of the mother’s name I added to a heart, I found myself saying a little prayer for this loving daughter and her family.

On Saturday my friends arrived at noon to find angel and purple heart confetti tucked into 200 cello sacks with a Hope & Healing heart affixed to a Purple Heart Story card.

I taught them to make ribbon roses and with every ribbon rose enhancement created and affixed to a package, I thought how beautiful it was going to be to hand a purple heart of Loving Remembrance to comfort and support each guest attending the memorial service for this well-loved woman. 

The final 100 hearts shipped on Valentine’s Day.

Today after sending a message to let the customer know the progress of the boxes sent on Saturday I receive the following note: “Thank you for creating a lasting memory of my mother!”