Why we chose the name Roots + Wings
When Shivonne and I started to think up names for our new business, which aims to support charities ensure sustainable foundations and to achieve excellence with the resources at their disposal, the name ‘Roots + Wings’ came to me almost immediately. Let me tell you why.
The meaning behind ‘Roots + Wings’
In 2016, my incredible mum Sara Scanlon was living with Stage 4 breast cancer, which had spread to her lungs, her bones, her brain. Determined as ever, she hardly let the disease slow her down. Until one day in early June, travelling to Oxford by train to meet a friend, she was confronted with the severity of the cognitive impairments caused by the tumour in her brain.
I will never know whether she feared she was about to die on that day in June, or simply about to lose touch with reality. Either way, she managed to get herself home from Oxford (refusing to allow her friend to accompany her). Once safely in her armchair, she started to send a volley of text messages. Messages of love and farewell, mixed in with practical household management suggestions and requests for her funeral service.
I was on a train myself, heading to Reading by chance that day. Ten minutes into the start of my journey, my dad called to say something was not right, and he was leaving work immediately. I felt powerless, unable to make my train go any faster or reach home any sooner. I tried calling and calling Mum, but she picked up only briefly and said she would prefer to keep texting as she found it easier and was worried about running down her phone battery.
One of her first messages to me said “I am confident you will always know exactly who you are & what to do next for the best.” She went on sending messages about which household bills were on direct debit and which needed reviewing, and who to contact about picking up the newspapers she had been saving for a local charity.
After a firm instruction that the hymns at her funeral service should include “no dirges!”, she sent a seemingly random message. “Remember the tile decoration at [your primary school] saying best you can give kids is roots and wings.” She later told me how she felt that our upbringing had given us strong, stable roots and encouraged us to develop our wings.
Just under one month later, on 4th July 2016, Mum died peacefully at home, surrounded by family and friends. The next morning’s post brought a gift from my Dad’s cousin, a pillow embroidered with the phrase Roots and Wings, illustrated with trees and birds. Opening that parcel was my first true moment of grief for my beloved mum, but it also felt like a sign.
Leaving employment after a decade in the charity sector and starting up a business feels like a huge step into the unknown. But thanks to Mum, I feel confident that I can trust my roots and stretch my wings.