Grieving husband has planted four-and-a-half miles of sunflowers in honor of his late wife

About 400 acres and hundreds of thousands of glorious blossoms glisten beneath the golden sun on Highway 85 in Wisconsin. A few miles southwest of Eau Claire, where corn and soybeans normally kiss the edges of the road, now stands a 60-foot-wide sunflower strip – four-and-a-half miles long. They sway in memory of a woman who shone as bright as the light to which the flowers stand in attention.

"They're just like a big yellow smile. And my mom was always smiling," says daughter Jennifer White On November 17th, Babbette Jaquish died after her battle with multiple myeloma, a form of leukemia. "She was really sick when she was first diagnosed. They gave her two weeks to two months to live if she didn't respond to the chemotherapy at that time," said White.
During her fierce fight with cancer, Babbette's husband, Don, began planting her favorite flower on their property. "Her dream was to take the sunflowers that we raised, and it's start to finish, and sell them and donate a portion of the proceeds to cancer research and also helping families with expenses involved in cancer treatment," said White.

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Don and Jennifer are nurturing that dream with Babbette's Seeds of Hope. A simple but substantial tribute for a selfless woman. Don doesn't own all of the land where the sunflowers were planted. He said he was amazed at people's willingness to allow him to plant on their property in Babbette's honor. The family will cut, clean and bag the flowers, which will be sold through local retail stores in the area.