In January 2021, when Amber Bell applied to be a Growing Kindness Ambassador, she wrote, "I want flowers and kindness to be part of what people remember about me when I am not here.“
When she applied, Amber had already been battling stage four cancer for four years.
Amber joined our Ambassador team and changed our hearts forever. She taught us so much about continuing to choose kindness, even through the most challenging times. Not a single one of us, ever left an interaction or conversations with her feeling anything but encouraged and inspired.
While Amber nurtured her family, juggled doctors appointments and treatments, she continued to tend her backyard flower garden and took every opportunity she could to share flowers in her community. She gave in big ways and little ways, always sharing kindness. Amber often took flowers with her to appointments to gift to other patients or staff. Her front porch was frequently filled with arrangements with an open invitation for anyone in need of kindness to take a bouquet. Then in July, one of Amber’s dreams came to fruition: she’d always hoped for a cargo bike to be able to ride around town delivering free flowers and sharing kindness.
In September, Amber began transitioning to hospice care. When she turned 42 on October 25, with help from family and friends, Amber made and delivered 42 bouquets to strangers who looked like they could use some extra kindness.
Amber passed on November 30. Cancer took so much from her, but never her radiant light, kindness, generosity, and bravery. Amber left a tender, lasting impression on all of our hearts. Thoughts of kindness and flowers will forever be woven together when we think of Amber.
For a woman who radiated joy while battling excruciating pain, shared kindness while juggling chemo, side effects, and endless doctor's appointments, and couldn't help but generously give to friends and strangers alike, any act of kindness in Amber’s name does not - and will never - go unnoticed.
Amber left a tender, lasting impression on each of us that is knit deeply in the Growing Kindness Project, and we want to be sure her life and legacy of kindness are never forgotten. While we can’t do a lot, we can do small things with great love - one of which is establishing the Amber Bell Legacy Scholarship. Each year, we will award the scholarship to an ambassador echoing Amber’s kindness, generosity, perseverance, light.
This scholarship purpose is to support and acknowledge those, like Amber, demonstrate tremendous kindness, even in the face of difficult circumstances.
We are honored to share that Woebegegue (Maggie) Gravedoni is the first recipient of the Amber Bell Legacy Scholarship.
Maggie, like Amber, exemplifies the courageous, beautiful act of choosing kindness in the face of adversity. Prior to starting her flower farming and landscaping business, Ruth and Piper, Maggie was working as a registered nurse. She knows first hand the stress and grief that surrounds those settings. In 2020, she found herself on the other end as a patient. Ruth and Piper is a passion project that started in 2020 when she needed to find peace and joy - Ruth was her daughter who died in 2020 after a complicated pregnancy and a few days in NICU and Piper is her puppy. The same year Maggie lost her daughter is the same year she grew my first flowers from seed.
Maggie plans to grow flowers to give to parents and staff in the NICU first and foremost, and then to the hospital and long-term care facilities near her and her husband.
We know Maggie will continue to touch hearts in her community and that Amber’s legacy of kindness and story of sharing will continue to be shared and carried forward by the Growing Kindness Team.
Two women giving generously from the depths of their grief to bring great joy.
In Amber’s words, “I feel like I have been given the opportunity to share the hard parts of my life along with the happy times and that as I have found beauty and shared it my life has been so much richer.”