She wanted to tell you herself. Mary — our big sister, our formulator, our visionary, the reason any of this exists — recorded a message from our Rose Cottage in Beverly on the South Side of Chicago. She wanted you to hear it directly from her, in her own words, in her own voice.
We'll let her speak for herself. Press play.
I have something important and personal to share with you, and I want you to hear it from me directly.
Mary had a stroke last Tuesday at 7 p.m. as we sat down to dinner. She couldn't see Annie seated to her right and, as her eyes filled with terror, she couldn't get the words out to tell me what was wrong. The paramedics arrived quickly. While we were en route to our local hospital, she couldn't recognize the names of close friends.
As the ambulance drove with sirens blaring, I held her hand with one hand and with the other sent messages to as many people as I could reach - our book club, friends in Italy, my personal "prayer request" group on Messenger - and an urgent and cryptic Facebook post to family and friends: "Pray for Mary. In ambulance now. Please God."
By Mary Duggan
My mother and her Aunt Kitty will always be women’s history for me. I think this is the case for many women. We learn how to navigate our lives, survive the terrible storms and stay on course while performing domestic tasks at the kitchen table with our mothers, and in our case, one small but mighty great aunt from Australia, as our teachers.
Dear Friends,
Every day is Earth Day for the Duggan Sisters and that’s the way we like it.
From our simple turn-of-the-century Worker’s Cottage on the Southside of Chicago - where we have lived happily above the shop for 15+ years - we have built our brand from a singular premise: you can not maintain a healthy body on a sick planet. And so we rise each day, firing up one HVAC system, not three, and working to maintain the smallest possible carbon footprint as we go about the business of being a business, working to make a real difference for both people and planet.
The Duggan Sisters are honored to be sending a care package along with the Humanity for Children volunteers going to Tanzania to build Ivy's House in honor of Ivy Case.
Here's our love note to all of you:
When the request to host Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot at our home arrived a few weeks ago, I was an enthusiastic yes - with one very serious reservation. Two months earlier we had received the devastating news that our darling dog, Boomer, was suffering from advanced liver cancer and had at best a few weeks to live. The vet sent him home following extensive and expensive testing with instructions to love him up until a series of horrific symptoms would inevitably and suddenly appear - at which time we would have to let him go.
And so we grieved and we cleared the decks - Boomer, for whatever time we had left together would be our top priority and our greatest joy...
