Sister, brother-in-law plant daffodils to honor late sibling
BUTLER TWP — What began as a project to cover their property with daffodils has turned into a labor of love for a Butler Township couple.
Emily and Mike Franusich began planting daffodils on their Preston Drive property in the fall of 2014.
But when Emily's sister, Marsha Milich, died in October, the project took a different direction.
The Franusiches hope to fill the field with daffodils as a memorial to Milich.
The acre-and-a-half field, at the corner of South Duffy Road and Preston Drive, has been in the family for generations. It came to be called Marsha's field, after it was gifted to her by her parents, Mike and Tillie Milich, years ago.
“We're truly going to turn it into Marsha's field,” Emily Franusich said recently while looking over the rows of blooming daffodils at the site. “It's the start of what we think will be a beautiful memorial.”
Marsha Milich was gardening at a friend's house in June when she fell down a set of steps and hit her head on concrete, causing a traumatic brain injury.
“She was such a gardener,” said Emily Franusich. “Plant, plant, plant, anywhere she lived.”
With Marsha's love of gardening, it became a natural decision for the Franusiches to expand their project.
When the couple began their project, they “bargain shopped” for their blooms, traveling to various gardening shops to buy bulbs. They found the bulbs for Marsha's field the same way, but quite by accident.
While walking through a home improvement store soon after Marsha's death, they spotted bags of daffodil bulbs in a corner with a 50 percent off sign.
“We bought every bag we possibly could,” said Mike Franusich. “We filled a shopping cart full.”
The pair took advantage of the warm weather in December to plant the bulbs, putting some of Marsha's ashes into the field as they planted.
“It's a more appropriate thing than some headstone,” Mike Franusich said.
A blue and green garden flag bearing the phrase “Remembering a Journey” marks the area, which is lined with the bright, yellow blooms. Looped over one of signposts is a green, rubber bracelet, honoring Marsha's decision to be an organ donor.
Denise Konieczny of Brenckle's Greenhouse in Butler said daffodils are some of the easiest perennials to plant and tend.
“You just plant it in the fall and they come up in the spring,” she said.
Konieczny said the best time to plant the bulbs is in the fall and cautions that those planting the bulbs should be sure to cover them completely.
The Franusiches planted 700 bulbs in Marsha's field last winter, but that is just the beginning.
“As the years go on, I plan to plant daffodils every fall in Marsha's field to honor my only sister,” Emily Franusich said. “I hope to have the daffodils naturalize, and someday there will be an entire field of daffodils that people will love to look at.”
“They remind me of happier times when my sister was alive,” she said of the daffodils. “She didn't have a long time on Earth. We want to keep her memory alive.”
