A beautiful tribute to Babbette Jaquish
After Babbette Jaquish lost a 9-year battle with cancer, her husband wanted to honor her in a remarkably
beautiful way:
A few miles southwest of Eau Claire, where corn and soybeans normally kiss the edges of the road, now stands a 60-foot-wide sunflower strip – four-and-a-half miles long.
"She's always loved flowers, but sunflowers were her favorite," says Don Jaquish, who planted the sunflowers as a tribute toBabbette, the wife he lost last November to cancer.
It's a lasting tribute with a charitable purpose:
The tribute crosses five farms. Neighbors opened up their land, telling Don to pay whatever rent seemed fair.
"They all loved her," Don says. "There wasn't anyone that ever met her that didn't love her."
The seeds will be harvested and sold to support other cancer patients. Babbette dreamed of that very notion, after convincing Don to plant a field of sunflowers four years ago.
They created
Babbette's Seeds of Hope, which will be used to help others:
To benefit families dealing with illness, Babbette’s Seeds of Hope will donate a portion of the proceeds from our products to hospitals, research, and patient advocacy.
See the sunflower tribute to Babbette and an interview with Don Jaquish at
KREM.com.