CLEVELAND — Local floral designer Marsha Parker is using beauty to inspire the community by sharing her eye for creativity and elegance to inspire cancer warriors.
“I understand now, you know I have words for it,” Parker shares. “Beauty really is transcendent and … it can lift you above your current circumstances.”
Parker is the owner of Refined Gatherings, a home-based floral and design company she started in 2009 after surviving breast cancer twice.
Like a rose, Parker's life has come with thorns.
“My husband, goddaughter and I were rear-ended by a semi, and we were fine,” Parker shares. “We went to Metro hospital … and they came back and said, ‘You know you're fine as far as you know the accident is concerned, but we see a mass on your right kidney that looks like cancer.’”
The diagnosis of kidney cancer in 2019 made this Parker’s third bout with the disease since the year 2000.
“When you're going through cancer or any type of hardship, your thoughts can take you places, and fear can torment you, right? So, you have to fight for peace,” Parker shares.
The now three-time cancer survivor sets aside a portion of the revenue from her business to fund free flowering events and giveaways for those impacted by cancer. Parker held her first #CONTENDFORPEACE Floral Design Workshop at the end of July.
“I love flowers and nature,” says workshop participant and cancer survivor Wendy Rooney. “Nature helps continue the process of healing.”
Parker is showing participants how to create their own survivorship inspired centerpiece with the lesson of how a flower can represent something positive about their personal life. It’s a message that resonated with Frieda Johnson, a double transplant recipient and cancer survivor.
Holding a pink rose, Johnson says to the group, “One of the main things that I noticed that would be kind of representative of my life is that even though it appears to be a mature rose, it’s still opening.”
Nicole McGee, Parker’s mentor through the SEA Change NEO accelerator program for social entrepreneurs, is amazed by how Parker is able to create beauty for her professional business, while also having a clear purpose of giving back to others and bringing people together.
“The work that Marsha is doing brings joy and beauty and connection and transformation to people's lives,” says McGee. “When we can work with our hands and connect with other people and create beauty, there’s something really meaningful and purposeful and a celebration of life that happens.
For Parker, she says her spiritual journey through cancer has given her a sense of obligation to overcome.
“That doesn't mean that I have control over my life, but I'm obligated to not be tormented, to not be harassed by fear.”
Refined Gatherings is the side business of the self-described “thriving cancer survivor.” Parker has been a teacher for more than 32 years, instructing children overseas in China, Papau New Guinea, and Lesotho. She currently teaches high school history courses in Cleveland.