Grandma

On May 13, 2022, our #1 supporter and honorary co-founder Grandma rejoined her siblings and parents. And Grandpa, after being a widow for nearly 30 years.

From the moment I first showed Grandma a rough sketch of what would become the “Iowa love” Symbol, Grandma immediately became our biggest supporter.

The very first evening we sent out several orders, Grandma folded and refolded a t-shirt several times, working out the perfect fold. “It’ll be nicest when somebody opens their package and sees “Iowa love” perfectly framed right there on top.”

Over the next six months, our operations were based out of her basement. When we had hundreds of shirts to process and fold, we’d takeover the living room and dining room.

During those months, she looked forward to UPS ringing the doorbell, to see how many boxes of blank t-shirts she’d received.

During the 2020 holiday shopping season, we encouraged Grandma to teach a family friend (who runs a commercial kitchen) her secret recipe for peanut brittle. We then introduced to the “Iowa love” community ‘Grandma K’s Homemade Peanut Brittle.” Thanks again for your support ordering several hundred tins - she loved the experience so much.

We asked Grandma to be a part of our holiday TV commercial back in November, though she had already been not feeling well and hadn’t been out of the house much during the preceding weeks. She decided she couldn’t miss it, supporting me. And we made her the star of that commercial!

Since the beginning, she’s folded more than 1,000 t-shirts. (If you ordered a Small - Large t-shirt within the first year of the business, there's a good chance she folded yours!)

Toward the end of last year, she had gotten a bit to weak to stand on her few for periods of timing making it more difficult to fold any more than a few at a time.

Simply put, without Grandma opening her house for us, and her endless prayers and words of affirmation, our business wouldn't be here now three years later after showing her those early sketches.

96 years is a long life, and she’d tell you that she had a blessed, wonderful one.