Hello all! I wonder if you might humor me today and allow me to post my last respects to a very dear client? We all have them — maybe if you are lucky you have more than one — an elderly client who adopts you and you love them as dearly as if they were blood. I had my beloved client for about 10 years (if I’m doing the math correctly) and she has just passed on at the age of 91. When my maternal grandmother whom I was very close to passed away several years ago my sweet Ruth adopted me as her granddaughter. I took my kids to visit her in the home and she treated me like one of the family.

Before the services I gave her one final manicure, it was my first post-mortem experience. I talked to her a bit as if she could hear me and did some nail art the way I knew she liked it. It was difficult in some ways, painful and a bit hard to see gems through tears, but it was also amazing. The last time her friends and family gaze upon her, she will have the nails she was always proud of and that means a great deal to me. I was not sure I could do it and had to do some deep breathing and stern talking to myself about sucking it up and doing the right thing as I went along, but if I can do it I know you could. If you are ever asked to give a client their final manicure, don’t let fear rob you of an experience that really does not have adequate words to explain how meaningful it is. Rest in peace my darling Ruth xoxo

— Holly