Name: Lorna Schlamp
Family: Married to Darren, 3 sons and their spouses, and 5 grandchildren
Profession: Florist and owner of Orchids and Accents Boutique
Age: 51
Years in Grenfell: 51
What is one area in your life that you're working on improving?
I think my health. Just working out more and eating heathier. I want to keep on improving more on my health. I feel good. Deb and Colleen - well, there's a group of us, that go to Windthorst for yoga on mondays, and wednesdays we do it here. I would go every night if I could. I missed it so much during summer. Darren and I did it again last night, and I really should do it more myself at home. We started again last night after not doing it for awhile. With Darren's back troubles, the yoga loosens everything, and he said it feels so good. Ashley (Draper, the yoga instructor) has such a soft gentle voice. It's good for your body, but also your mind. It's just so good. You don't think about anything else. You just relax and do your stretching. It's so important.
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
If I could travel anywhere, I think where I'd like to go would be Germany. I think so, because that where my grandparents immigrated from. My dad always wanted to go there, but he never got the opportunity. Ty had gone on the school trip and he said it was just so beautiful. I would just love to go and tour through all of that area. All the architecture and elevations.
Describe one of your closest girlfriends.
One of my closest friends is Cindy Hardy. She is just amazing. She'd do anything for anybody, before herself. She's my total confidant. She brings me up when I need to be brought up and I hope I do the same for her, you know? She is someone who I definitely trust my life with. We went to school together, graduated together. We lived a few miles apart and we'd go to school together once we got our licences. Oh my gosh...we have had a lot of good times together. Lots of good memories.
Describe your life in your early 30s.
Let me think about this. The kids would have been about 11, 10 and 6. I was getting out of the diapers and that stage of things. It was lots of car pooling and going to the rink, that sort of stuff, because I was a stay-at-home mom. I did a lot of driving. You volunteer for everything. Anything that they needed. So that was my early 30s. Basically that's all I can kind of remember! Each stage of your life is so different. They're babies, then teens and young people. It's always changing. And I remember it being hard when they graduated. For me, and for every mother, I knew I was losing them in a way. And Matt and Mike graduated at the same time, so it was two at once! My sister, she bought me this book called "Give them Wings". It was so good. You don't want them to be dependant on you forever but it's hard to let go.
What is one physical item that you have that holds sentimental value?
Actually, I have a few pieces here in the flower shop. They were my grandma's. An armoir and a buffet. I've got the table and chairs as well. Different people have looked at the flower shop, but those are the two things that won't be included in the sale. I am someone, who I think about something so many times I guess, and I knew how I wanted a flower shop one day. Probably 20 years ago, and I always thought of those two pieces being in my flower shop. I don't even know if I had the pieces yet then. My parents did, but then my dad got them refinished. I remember them being in my grandma's house, in a big formal dining room. I did paint them myself after I got them, and put new hardware on.
What is on your bucket list?
That's funny that I should get this. Three years ago, this was on my bucket list - the flower shop. So I think to myself, what do I want to do next? What else is on my bucket list? I want to travel more. Spend more time with my husband. Pull him away a little bit from the tire shop and help ease his stress level a bit there.
How would your friends describe you?
I know I've had different friends say that I accomplish what I set out to do. I guess I do what I say I'm going to do, and I hope that doesn't sound arrogant. I hope that's how they would see me. I don't like gossip. I just like to be optomistic and enjoy life. Try new things. I think with a lot of my friends, even if we don't see eachother for a few years, we can pick up where we left off. I have a very good friend from Regina, we went to school together too, she'll call me out of the blue, and she'll come and spend the whole day here together with me at the flower shop. We'll go out for lunch or whatever, and it's just easy. It's good to have those relationships.
What do you like about small town living?
I love small town living. I love that fact that everyone knows everyone. And even with your children... we made pacts when our kids were young, that if another parent would see my kids doing something they shouldn't be, they'd tell them, and vice versa. It is nice to be able to wave to somebody and talk to them and sometimes it takes you hours to get something uptown because you end up talking to someone. But it's nice to have that. The hometown feeling. I remember when I worked in Regina, at Fiorante's, I didn't like the city atmosphere. The people I worked with were different and the customers were too. They didn't want to really visit. I'd try to strike up a conversation, and people didn't want to talk. On my way back from the city, it would be dark as I'd drive up to town, and I'd see the lights of Grenfell, and I just felt I was home. It's so much more personable here.
What piece of art do you love in your home?
I would have to say, there's two, but I like a piece that Darren got for me from Jamie and Lisa's (The Village Merchant) It's a root, sort of like a statue. It stands maybe four or five feet high. When they first opened, I went in there and fell in love with it, but it was a bit out of my price range. Lisa and Jamie remembered that I liked it though, and so Darren had gone in there - maybe I mentioned it once. I don't even know how he knew to go in there. But anyway, he got it for me for Christmas. He just said one day, "Jamie and Lisa are coming out". He said he was asking them out for a drink, but it was close to Christmas, and I was in the middle of making Christmas supper for the kids. So I was a little confused. Anyway, I saw them pull up, and Ty was at home at the time and went outside as soon as Jamie got there. And here it was them with this big root. So that's definitely one of my favorite pieces. The second one is something Matt and Carmen got me. It's a wooden plaque that says "Grandchildren fill a space in your heart that you never knew was empty" It has little slats of wood that hang down with each of the kid's names and birthdays. I just love it.