Home Gardener Donates Bouquets to Kavanagh House in Memory of 'Meggie'

DES MOINES, IOWA  --  The halls of Kavanagh House on 56th Street in Des Moines are getting a splash of color this summer, thanks to a local home gardener.   

“Flowers make people happy,” says Laura Smith of Des Moines.   

So why not share the happiness from her front yard with patients and families in need of some brightness? 

In June, Laura made the first of what she plans to be regular donations of bouquets of fresh-cut flowers from her garden.  The bouquets, delivered in mason jars, were filled with brown-eyed and black-eyed Susans, coreopsis, poppy heads, butterfly weed and Hosta leaves.  Laura says the bouquets will grow as her garden blooms.  “Later in the summer I’ll have really big dahlias,” she says. 

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It may seem like a small gesture, but Laura knows from experience how important the little things are sometimes.   

“I did this for my friend Meg,” Laura says, “she died in home hospice care last year.” 

Meg ‘Meggie’ Young’s battle with multiple sclerosis came to an end in November 2024.  As she faced her final months, Laura worked to keep Meg’s life full of color.  “Last year I yelled at my flowers to bloom so that I could cut them for Meg.” 

When a new growing season arrived, Laura decided to keep the giving going.  “We knew how much it had brightened things for Meg,” she says, “so we’re giving that to someone else while honoring our friend.” 

Laura says she started her flower garden in the Drake neighborhood about five years ago for a simple reason.  “I didn’t want an ugly yard,” she says. 

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The garden has also helped her grow a sense of community with her neighbors.   

“We planted a garden close to the sidewalk and that’s how I got to know my neighbors and that’s important to me,” she says, “If you’re pulling weeds in your front yard, people stop and talk to you.” 

The flowers are therapeutic for Laura as well, allowing her to come and go as her health allows.  “I grow flowers because I have MS and heat can make you feel terrible,” she says, “So, I only grow flowers so I can abandon them for a few weeks at a time.” 

Laura considered making the bouquet donation anonymously, but that isn’t what Meg would’ve wanted.   

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“Meg was in every news story she could be,” she says.  That included WHO 13 covering her unique love story that crossed political party lines and the Des Moines Register’s coverage of her wedding day while living with MS.  “She cultivated a very wide community around the country through social media by sharing her story,” says Laura. 

“Any chance she had to give an interview she did, so she’d want me to share this story.”