When her grandpa passed away, Megan Becker was devastated.
It was September 2018. Much like anyone suffering a loss, she was looking for her way process it. So, she grabbed her sewing machine and a shirt of grandpa Paul Hemmen’s.
She took apart the bright blue plaid shirt. She carefully ripped out the thread and started to piece together something new: a memory bear. The teddy bear was complete with black buttons for eyes and a handkerchief in one of the pockets. Megan was touched.
“I ugly cried,” she said. “I was a moment of shock that I actually was able to make it. I was proud and it was upsetting. It was I think every emotion ran through me So, but I held on to it for a while.”
The bear meant a lot to her, and then she got to thinking how it could help others too.
Outside of her job in the aircraft industry, she kept working on her craft and created a business: Sunflower Belle Designs. The name is personal.
“Sunflowers were my grandpa’s favorite flower. He was a farmer, so that’s why I have this sunflower,” she said. “Then the ‘belle’ came from my other Grandpa, who’s a farmer, and is crafty. He always called me his ‘Southern belle.’”
Megan makes face masks, shirts and koozies. Yet, perhaps the most rewarding are the memory pillows and memory bears. So far, she’s made 75 bears for people around the world.
“I never imagined that it would that it would turn into this. It’s been absolutely crazy,” Megan said. “Being able to give this to somebody, I know how it makes me feel, and how heartwarming and comforting. It’s been to have something of my grandpa’s to hold to remember him by. So, by giving that to somebody else said, It’s a great feeling.”
“I hope to be able to reach out and help as many families as I can to help them be comforted, to be able to get past losing a loved one, but never lose those memories,” she continued.
She’ll make the bears out of anything: shirts, curtains or quilts. Yet, with the material that comes into her workspace, she is not alone. She pulls out an antique teal frame, and inside it is a picture of Megan smiling at Grandpa Hemmen. He helps oversee each piece, as she pours her whole heart into them.
“What My grandpa was an amazing man, and he believed in me,” she said. “He was behind me with everything I did. I just wish he could have could have seen this. I know he’d be proud.”
To see more of Megan’s work with Sunflower Belle Designs, click here.