N.B. entrepreneur honours memory of mother with 'thank you' note legacy

Emily Somers has always known a gift received should be followed up with a handwritten note of gratitude.

She has her mother Saunders to thank for that polite habit.

“We were a ‘thank you card’ family,” says Somers, owner and operator of ES Designs – A Saunders Story based in St. Stephen, N.B. “After Christmas we would sit down and write our ‘thank you’ cards.”

Somers says her mother, a beloved elementary school teacher who passed away in 2007, was a big advocate for manners and respect.

“She made us write a thank you card for everything we ever received whether it was birthdays, Christmas, grad gifts, you name it,” says Somers, who initially viewed the task as a chore, later understanding its importance after her grandmother showed her a box full of cards and letters received over the years.

“She told me ‘this helps me keep everything straight,’ and I just never forgot that,” says Somers.

Ultimately, Somers began hand painting her very own greeting cards for a few friends during the holidays.

“Some friends would say ‘I really liked that card you made for me last year, can you make another one just like it?’ I couldn’t make it exactly the same,” says Somers. “But I thought maybe I could do a few more.”

Somers found inspiration in 2016 to begin printing her card designs after rediscovering a photo taken 10 years earlier, of her mother and daughter.

“(My daughter’s) first Christmas was my mom’s last Christmas,” says Somers. “I started really thinking about my mom because when you lose somebody, you don’t know necessarily when those moments are going to pop up. I started thinking fondly about the kind of person she was. I said maybe this is the year, instead of hand painting the cards, I’ll make some prints and put a little message about my mom on the back.”

A photo of Emily Somer’s mother Saunders holding her granddaughter shortly after being born in December 2006. (Courtesy: Emily Somers)

The printing of those first 200 cards, featuring four different patterns and a written tribute to Saunders, were a hit.

“Four little simple designs turned into a stationary business,” says Somers.

Somer’s original artwork has grown to include a collection of local landscapes and the daily anecdotes printed on cards, journals, and notepads.

“A lot of it just comes from things around me, and it sparks a memory,” says Somers, who donates a portion of sales to cancer charities (including the Charlotte County Cancer and Breast Cancer Canada.

Somers says while her business celebrates the “lost art” of handwritten notes (“The act of writing the thank you note feels just as good sometimes as the receiving part.”), it truly serves as a loving tribute to her mother.

“She was always really supportive of us growing up with anything creative we would do,” says Somers. “And she was creative herself. I’m glad I’m just able to tell her story.”

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