I want to go to beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. India.Arie, Beautiful.
PEORIA On an otherwise unremarkable day, 17-year-old A saiah Allen cooked breakfast for her household, chatted with relatives and watched TV with her mom.
Then she went into her bedroom, locked the door and quietly killed herself.
Weeks later, while trying to weave funeral plans amid the aching press of sorrow, Jennifer Raines ponders the abrupt death of her daughter. The loss seems especially shocking after A’saiah had fought for years to survive childhood leukemia.
“I don’t know what my baby was thinking that day,” Raines, 43, says quietly between sobs. “Things were normal.”
PEORIA Justice Parker always knew she would be a business owner.
Parker, 25, owns Hello Poppy Boutique in the Peoria Warehouse District. Because her family owns the 50 s Diner in the Metro Centre, she’s been around entrepreneurs all her life.
Hello Poppy isn’t Parker’s first business. Soon after having her second child, she started The Sparkly TeeCup, an online shop for custom-made T-shirts and tumblers. She made all the merchandise herself from designs dictated by the customer.
“I had it for about two years, and it was super successful,” said Parker. “But I had an injury to my wrist, and I was unable to continue that one, so I opened up the boutique.”