Queen of Hearts

Sunset Stories Part 3

This is a story of my final role, where leadership looked a lot like being the Queen of Hearts in a garden of blooming souls.

Why this matters

This story matters because it shows what heart‑centered leadership really looks like in everyday life. Not in big speeches or grand gestures, but in small, steady acts of care—a rescued plant, a garden photo, a deck of cards with a quiet blessing tucked inside. In a season of endings, the Queen of Hearts reminded me that the way we tend people’s spirits can outlast any title, role, or company.

I love gardening.

I’m the one who brings home the wilted plants from the clearance rack and tucks them into fresh soil, hoping they’ll find their way back to bloom. Watching a rescued plant lift its leaves and flower does my heart good. I’m drawn to the quiet beauty of plants and the care it takes to keep a garden alive. Taking pictures of my plants in life's progress brings me great satisfaction and joy.

I love working with people

I naturally nurture people in similar ways to my garden. When I’m given a chance to create a small moment of care for a guest, resident, leader or staff member, something blooms in my heart. I can be having a hard day, and then suddenly there’s an opening to do one kind thing—to shift the tone of my day or someone else’s—and the heavy cloud lifts and opens into a moment of love. That’s one of the many reasons I felt so blessed that my final corporate “sunset” happened in a senior community with a dozen leaders on my team. Every day felt like walking through a garden of blooming hearts.

Merging of life's pleasures

During the holiday season, my love for people and gardens merged. I created small mementos for my leaders featuring garden images, taken by me (representing growth and beauty of life). It was like sharing a part of me.

• The first year, it was a ceramic coaster for their desks, featuring one of twelve images from my own garden.

• The second year, a card stock desk calendar on a stand, featuring my favorite twelve photo from our community’s beautiful gardens.

• In my last year, I created decks of cards featuring different community garden

  images. Tucked inside each deck was this card, composed of bad puns

  and a personal note:

December 2023

It was in the cards for me to become a part of this family!  I flush at the thought of our team’s accomplishments knowing that belonging to a full house is much more fulfilling than solitaire. We win by shuffling our talents, playing our cards right and using our full deck.

What suits you?

·       Hearts – Water – emotions, family, home & relationships

·       Spades - Air – intellect, communication & challenges

·       Clubs – Fire - defines change & the action that's swiftly coming

·       Diamonds – Earth - progress, ethics, stability & commitment

Let the games begin in the new year! Cards can help relax your mind, awake happy hormones, keep your brain sharp, boost memory, improve patience, and build self-esteem!

So, play on and enjoy the beauty of our community with each card you are dealt! 

 Here’s to a winning 2024!   

I wanted the leaders to view the coming difficult months as a game we could win. I was also encouraging some self-reflection about what type of person / leader they were (Heart, Spade, Club, Diamond). Finally, I was sending a message not to forget that their personal well-being and self-esteem were important priorities.

Five months later, when the day came for my "sunset", one of my leaders crafted a Queen of Hearts card for me with this message:

“The Queen of Hearts represents a sincere and loving woman of tender heart. She signifies a sincere friend or nearest relative. More generally, the Queen of Hearts evokes the feelings of unconditional and caring love.”

When my leader handed me that Queen of Hearts card, it felt less like a compliment and more like a mirror. She named what I had been trying to live out in that blooming place: leading with a full deck, but always playing my heart first. As I step away from this sunset, I carry her words—and that card—as a quiet reminder of the kind of person I strive to keep being, wherever the next hand is dealt.

The Sunset Series

This series describes my last professional Sunset and the profound impact this experience it has had on my life. I invite you to explore my final Sunset:

Tracing the Horizon of a Career (Introduction)

1. A Final Interview

2. A Community of Blessings

3. Queen of Hearts

4. Heartfelt Farewells