Sunflowers for a Soulmate

If you’re in the Wisconsin area in the near future, take Wisconsin State Road 85.

It’s worth the detour.

On Road 85, there is a love letter of sorts. Not your ordinary love letter, but one written in sunflowers for as far as the eye can see.

Don Jaquish, 65, has planted 4.5 miles of sunflowers on either side of the road as a tribute to his wife, Babbette. She was the love of his life and he lost her last November to cancer.

The sunflower was Babbette’s favorite flower.

Farmers opened up their fields to Jaquish, accepting whatever rent he felt was fair to pay.

People who shop at Luer’s Grocery can’t stop talking about them. You can see waving, bright yellow flowers, amazing in their sheer number, from the store.

“They are just beautiful,” Jack, a Luer’s employee, told LifeZette. “People come in and just talk about them. People drive around and around, just to look at them. Fields and fields of sunflowers, as far as you can see.”

Babbete suffered from multiple myeloma for almost nine years. She endured 23 rounds of chemo. After her diagnosis she was initially given just a few weeks to a few months to live. “I have people praying for me,” Babbette, a person of deep faith, told her doctor right after the diagnosis.

“That’s nice,” the doctor replied.

Seven years into treatment, that same doctor said to Babbette, “I’m praying for you, Babbette.”

“That’s how she was,” Jaquish remembers. “Everybody just absolutely loved her.”

The field has become an inspiration not only for the community and tourists, but for those who have cancer, or those who have lost loved ones to cancer. People have been traveling from several different states to see the vibrant fields of bobbling yellow flowers, the flowers themselves – and the man behind them.

“We had a little two-year-old girl with brain cancer here the other day,” Jaquish says, his voice somber. “She had her picture taken with the sunflowers.”

The Jaquishes’ marriage was the second for both of them. They never took their relationship for granted. In a letter Babbette wrote to Don before she died (which he found four months to the day after her death), she wrote, “Thank you for the life we had together.”

“We had a little two-year-old girl with brain cancer here the other day,” Jaquish says, his voice somber. “She had her picture taken with the sunflowers.”

In another passage she wrote, “I will be with you always. Help the kids get through this. Be strong for them, and let them help you, also.”

Don Jaquish’s love for her was just as strong. “She was my soulmate,” he told LifeZette. “We had something very few have.”

While Babbette loved all flowers, sunflowers were her special favorite. When in treatment, she had an idea for a small business centered around sunflowers – not to help herself, but to help others.

“My mom wanted to bag up sunflower seeds and sell them to help others – maybe purchase gas cards for those traveling for treatment, or other needs they might have,” her daughter, Jennifer White, told LifeZette.

“This is a story about my mom – her legacy, and her love of life, and other people.”

To fulfill Babbette’s desire to help others, her family is starting Babbette’s Seeds of Hope. Sunflower seeds will be sold online after this year’s harvest.

Don Jaquish sometimes feels a little overwhelmed by all the attention he is receiving from his sunflower tribute. “I thought maybe the local paper might do a write-up – maybe the local TV station might be interested,” he says. “To see it take off like this is just amazing. It’s a testament to Babbette, and her strength.”

Will he plant the sunflowers again next year? Don said, yes, although they would probably have to find a new field to plant them. New seeds will have to be planted all over again. “Sunflowers have a cycle,” he said reflectively.

Just like life.