The Flower Shop She Never Forgot

Some people walk into a flower shop to buy something.

Janette walked into one and found a piece of herself.

The Beginning

The Girl in the Flower Shop

This was years ago — way before we got together. Janette was young, probably just before or during her college years, working at a local flower shop in Southern California.

And from what she’s told me over the years… it wasn’t just a job. It was something else entirely.

She loved walking into that shop. The cool air hitting her face the moment she stepped inside. The temperature was always perfect — never hot, always comfortable. Like stepping into a different world from the Southern California heat outside.

And the colors. Oh man, the colors.

Rows and rows of flowers in every shade you can imagine. Deep reds. Soft pinks. Bright yellows. Purples so rich they almost didn’t look real. And her favorites — stargazer lilies with those bold pink petals and tiny freckles, standing tall like they knew how gorgeous they were. And tulips. Simple, elegant, classic tulips. Something about the way a tulip holds its shape — confident but gentle — I think that spoke to who Janette is.

Then there was the fragrance.

If you’ve ever walked into a flower shop cooler — that big glass-door chiller where they keep everything fresh — you know what I’m talking about. It’s not just one scent. It’s layers. Rose underneath, lily on top, something sweet and green weaving through all of it. The kind of fragrance you don’t just smell — you breathe in. And it stays with you.

Janette would come home smelling like roses and lilies and all kinds of flowers. And I wasn’t even there for those days, but she’s told me about it, and I can picture it perfectly. Her walking through the door after a shift, that cool floral scent still clinging to her hair and her clothes.

I would have loved that.

The Heart of It

More Than Just Flowers

Here’s what I think most people don’t realize about working in a flower shop.

It’s not just about the flowers. It’s about the people who come in to get them.

Think about it. Nobody walks into a flower shop on a bad day for a bad reason. They’re there because someone they love is having a birthday. Or an anniversary. Or a baby. Or maybe they messed up and they’re trying to say sorry in a way that words can’t. Or maybe — and this is the one that gets me — they just want to put something beautiful on their kitchen table because life’s been heavy and they need a little color.

Every single customer who walked through that door was carrying a story. And Janette got to be part of it.

She wasn’t the designer — she wasn’t the one building the big arrangements. But she was the one helping people choose. Selecting the right flowers. Matching colors that went together just right. Finding that perfect greenery to frame everything. Adding baby’s breath to make an arrangement pop — and if you’ve never seen what baby’s breath does to a bouquet, it’s like adding stars to a night sky. It goes from nice to magical.

And when those customers walked out the door with their arrangement… Janette felt happy. Because she knew they left happy too.

That’s a rare thing in a job. Most work doesn’t give you that. Most work takes something from you. But this? This gave something to her every single day.

Her Gift

The Artistic Side Nobody Knew About

I think working in that flower shop brought out something in Janette that she might not have even known was there.

An artistic eye. A sense of design. The ability to look at a pile of different stems and see — before anyone else did — which ones belonged together.

That’s not nothing. That’s a gift.

Knowing that this shade of purple pairs with that soft white. That these particular greens will make those pinks stand out. That sometimes less is more and sometimes more is more. There’s an intuition to it. A feel.

And I think — no, I know — that job was stress-reducing for her. Not stress-causing. And if you knew everything Janette has taken on in her life with passion and purpose, you’d know that’s saying something. She’s the kind of person who gives 110% to everything she does, which is beautiful, but it also means she carries a lot.

Right now she’s a supervisor who oversees other supervisors in property management. And I’ve no doubt she’s incredible at it. But some days… the weight is heavy. That’s just the truth.

The flower shop was different. The flower shop was light.

Cool air. Pretty colors. Happy customers. The simple joy of making something beautiful and handing it to someone who needed it.

The Dream

The Dream That Never Went Away

Here’s what a lot of people don’t know about Janette.

She didn’t just enjoy working in that flower shop. She wanted to own one.

And she didn’t just daydream about it either. She took real steps.

She looked into costs. She researched how much income a flower shop could generate over five years. She explored small minority business loans for women. She sat down and talked with floral arrangement designers and suppliers — the people who actually live in that world every day.

This wasn’t a wish. This was a plan.

But being very practical — and Janette is nothing if not practical — life had other plans. Her current work always seemed to take priority. And money… well, money’s always a factor, isn’t it? The dream got set aside. Not abandoned. Just… set aside.

Because dreams like that don’t die. They just wait.

I know this because one morning — we were just getting started on our day, nothing special — and Janette mentioned it again. She talked about how even if we were traveling (which we talk about a lot), she could hire employees to run the shop. She’d find the right people. She’d set it up so it could run without her being there every day.

She’d already thought it through. All of it.

And I’m standing there with my coffee thinking… this woman has been carrying this dream around for decades. And it’s still alive.

Her Love Language

Being Heard Is Part of Being Loved

I need to say something here that doesn’t have anything to do with flowers or business or any of that.

Janette’s love language is being heard.

And I don’t mean heard like “yeah, uh-huh, that’s nice, honey” while you’re scrolling your phone. I mean heard. The kind of heard where someone looks at you and actually takes in what you’re saying. Remembers it. Holds it. Does something with it.

Being heard is part of being loved.

So this article? This is me hearing her. Out loud. In front of whoever’s reading this right now.

I hear you, Janette. I heard you when you told me about the cool air in the chiller and the smell of roses on your clothes. I heard you when you talked about stargazer lilies and tulips. I heard you when you told me about the customers leaving happy. I heard you when you researched loans and talked to suppliers. I heard you that morning when you told me you’d hire people to run the shop while we traveled.

I heard all of it. And I kept all of it.

And I’m sharing it now because your story deserves to be told.

Why This Matters

Why I’m Really Writing This

Here’s the thing…

Janette has something she loves. Something that lights her up from the inside. Something she’s actually good at. And the only thing standing between her and that dream has been time and money.

Sound familiar?

Maybe for you it’s not a flower shop. Maybe it’s a bakery. Or a photography studio. Or a woodworking shop. Or a travel blog. Or teaching piano lessons. Or writing children’s books. Or literally anything that makes you feel the way Janette felt when she walked into that cool, colorful, beautiful-smelling flower shop.

We all have something.

The problem is, most of us are so busy working for someone else’s dream that we never get the time or money to chase our own. We set it aside. We tell ourselves “someday.” And someday keeps getting further away.

I know that feeling. I was a kindergarten teacher for 20 years before I lost my job in 2012. After that, I went through 40 different business opportunities trying to build something online. Spent over $10,000. Failed more times than I could count.

But I never stopped believing I could build something around the things I love. And eventually… I did.

Albie’s Sea Shop — this place right here — is me sharing my love of the ocean with the world. Starfish. Seashells. Driftwood. The stories behind them. And connecting those stories to something that actually earns.

Because I learned something important along the way. One of the most critical skills in building any business — online or off — is catching people’s attention. And you know what catches attention better than anything?

Sharing something you genuinely love.

When Janette talked about flowers, her eyes lit up. When I talk about the ocean, something in me comes alive. And when YOU talk about that thing — whatever your thing is — people can feel it. They lean in. They pay attention. They want to be part of it.

That’s not a gimmick. That’s not a marketing trick. That’s just… being real. And it works.

The Numbers

Enough to Fund a Flower Shop

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