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Contact Robin Austin-Parsons 253.538.0808 E-mail RobinAustinParsons@lovnotes.com Website www.lovnotes.com [Feel free to use photos from the website] Experiencing five deaths with in a few short months this grieving family brings significance for their pain by helping others move through their grief. Tacoma, WA. Gary W. and Robin Austin-Parsons have launched a grief relief tool called LOV Notes ~ an Interactive Living Memorial. On Memorial weekend 1998, Robin Austin-Parsons' older brother died in a motorcycle accident.(The second family member to die in a month). She struggled on how to handle his death and how to help his young grandchildren. Austin-Parsons and her husband Gary devised LOV Notes - an outdoor bronze heart memorial that gives to children as well as adults a tangible place to deliver letters, poems or a picture they drew to the memory of relatives, friends and also pets. Setting free heartfelt messages into their own personal interactive memorial. Writing gives emotions a voice. LOV Notes can be installed in most places, but, the No. 1 place to find them is at people's own homes. Easily installed in about 40 minutes (just dig a small hole). This special memorial can be relocated in the event of a move, and is a complement to any landscaping theme. The LOV Notes Interactive Memorial comes in two parts - A specially engineered solid bronze heart anchored into a reinforced concrete frame. At the point of the 8-inch bronze heart is a slight opening one can slip notes through. The second part is a high-density polyurethane receiver placed into the ground, thus embracing the letters until they gently return back to nature. Robin says, "Death takes, but, it cannot take our love. Grief is not over in a year. Our family/friends have experienced first hand the healing power of LOV Notes and it has helped us move through our grief and into remembering the many moments they 'lived'. LOV Notes provides us with a place to 'connect' to those wonderful experiences as well as include them into our daily lives." #####  Unsung Hero: Robin Austin-Parsons Using Her Grief To Help OthersSEATTLE -- Every month.. We like to share the story of an "Unsung Hero." These are stories of common people doing uncommon things... Making a difference in the lives of others. John Yeager found a Tacoma woman who's used her personal grief to help others through life's "darkest hour." He died four years ago but Robin Austin-Parsons will never forget her brother Danny. Robin Says, "He Taught me how to dance, taught me how to fight, how to be tough, be soft all in one." Killed in a motorcycle accident, a sister's pain would not go away. Robin tells Q13 News, "A piece of me died...who or what I was is no longer who or what I am now. My brother's gone...I'm different." She found that grief, like the wind would not stop. Robin Says, "Some people say a year but a year's nothing in grief. A year for a person grieving....most people look forward with anticipation, to a new birthday, a new holiday a new New Years. But when you're grieving, you look back on that year and you're looking back on the year, you're not looking forward. You know that this year is going on again without your loved one." At first all she could do was visit Danny's grave. But soon Robin began to feel that just going to the cemetery wasn't enough, that grief hit her at odd times during the day and night and that she needed to do something with those feelings. So she created a personal memorial called "Lov Notes". The first one four years ago, was made of cardboard. Now she runs a business out of her home, selling these concrete and bronze personal memorials. It's in her backyard. She says it decomposes within a matter of weeks. Robin tells Q13 News, "It's a nice way to connect us to our thoughts. Having a place to deliver it to even better than writing a note." Robin's given away more than she's sold, reaching people all over the world, a world she says that all too often ignores grief. Katie Myron lost her mother ten years ago. Grief counselors told her to write. Katie says, "And so I would start writing. And I have four or five big folders full of stuff. The problem was I didn't know where to put it." Today Katie Myron says her grief isn't gone but because of these personal memorials, she's starting to heal, thanks in part to Robin Austin-Parsons, an Unsung Hero. Katie tells Q13 News, "Robin is supplying people with a new tool, as new avenue for their grief. It doesn't have to be the way it's always been." "Love doesn't die. Death takes a lot from us but it can't take our love." - John Yeager 
Note holder at grave offers a connectionLOV Notes: Two invent device after death of family member May 28, 2002 by Stacey Burns: The News Tribune Robin Austin-Parsons' normal life stopped on May 30, 1998, when her older brother died in a motorcycle accident off West Valley Highway in South King County. She struggled with how to handle Danny Lee Austin's death - the second family member to die in a month - and how to help his young grandchildren understand. She hasn't been the same since. Between tears, Austin-Parsons and her husband, Gary W. Parsons, devised LOV Notes - an outdoor, heart-shaped marker and container that allows adults and children to write letters and poems to deceased friends, relatives and pets, then slip them in the ground never to be seen again. The unit comes in two parts - a bronze heart inside a concrete frame that sits above ground as a memorial marker, and a plastic receiver dug into the ground that holds the letters until they disintegrate. "Since his death, my life died," Austin-Parsons said. "This helped me move through my grief." Austin-Parsons and her husband quit their jobs, took out $300,000 in loans, attended a workshop and renovated part of their Summit-area home into an office. They transformed a Spanaway garage into an assembly workshop. They got a business license for LOV Notes, developed a Web site and matching stationery and applied for a patent. "When somebody dies, people need a place to go, a way to connect," said Austin-Parsons, a former hairdresser who wears a button with her brother's face on it. "It's your connection to keep your memories alive." Austin-Parsons said she's experienced the healing power of grief writing. It helps her regularly. For Austin-Parsons, May 30 will always be the day her brother died. It's hard for her to think of that time of year as Memorial Day weekend and the start of summer. Shortly after the accident, Austin-Parsons started fiddling with the LOV Notes idea. The first prototype was made with a cardboard box and duct tape. Gary Parsons worked on the prototypes for the LOV Notes unit as Austin-Parsons tinkered with the design she wanted on the bronze heart. She settled on an intricate set of hearts she calls "flutterflies," after the flutters in her stomach when she thought of her brother. The bronze heart fits snug into a concrete heart. On either side of the point of the bronze heart are slits where the notes go. The plastic receiver can hold up to 600 letters and cannot be opened. "Death takes a lot of things from us but it can't take our love," she said. The first LOV Notes unit was installed at Austin's grave last September in Fir Lane Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Spanaway. Austin-Parsons and her mother, Claire Zuger, visited Austin's grave last week and both slipped notes into the LOV Notes unit. "I feel like Danny is with me all the time," Zuger said. "I know I am sending him a little note." The Parsons have sold fewer than 30 of the LOV Notes units, Austin-Parsons said. "It's not going to replace my brother," she said. "But it gives us a place to connect." - Stacey Burns
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