In late October, my husband, Derek, and I gathered with his colleagues and our friends from Formation PR + Brand, around a fire for a ‘namestorming’ session for this new adventure. After an hour or so batting around ideas, potential names, and possible tag lines, I shared with our friends that I have the gifts and talents of organization and particularly itinerary planning because I am Debbie Allison’s daughter.

That’s Debbie Case Allison in the photo, my mom. Before the invention of the internet and the surge of Disney travel planners, my mom was the ‘go to’ person for all things trip planning. Growing up, we went to Disney every other Thanksgiving with a large group, close to 20 family members (and friends that are family). Mom (Debbie) had printed itineraries for our 7-day trip with every detail and time mapped out. It was seamless and perfect.

She was detailed-oriented, organized, steady, but she was also a fighter. You see, she fought breast cancer for eight years until her body grew too tired at age 48 (almost 15 years ago), leaving a gaping hole in our family. Her spirit and her gifts, however, remain.

That night around the fire, we began to explore her name, traits and even her birth year for naming inspiration. After a pause in conversation, I said, “well, she was born in June.” Derek immediately threw out the name “June bug”, but it felt a little childish so that option was quickly thrown out. Seconds later he said “Juniper”. Yep – we all knew. This was it.

Juniper is loosely connected yet forever inspired by my late mother, who lives on in me, my children and in this work.