On Friday, March 6, 2009, I was in the emergency room at St. Joseph hospital after six months of flu-like symptoms & weight loss. A chest x-ray and CT scan would show a grapefruit sized tumor wrapped around my heart & major veins and compressing my esophagus. The biopsy determined it was non-hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Four years later, on Thursday, March 7, 2013, I was sitting in the conference room of Natural Body International in Atlanta. The company had decided to cease operations at the Leawood location, where I had been the Spa Director for three years. The team in Atlanta knew that I had aspirations to own a spa, so we began the process of negotiating a business purchase.
On September 1, 2013, Natural Body Spa & Shop in Leawood became Milagro Midwestern Spa & Collective, locally owned & completely independent of Natural Body International. Some things have changed & some have not. We still have the familiar faces of the best spa team in town, as you may have discovered if you’ve visited recently. And we’ve taken the commitment to offer authentic products to an even higher level. We’ve decided to carry smaller brands, many handmade by small teams of real-life people. We like to know who is making our products and what their processes and principles are. It just makes us feel better.
We also were determined to find a new home for Milagro, in a space that reflects our new personality of locally owned and community focused. Our current spa in Leawood has been great for five years, but we are ECSTATIC to move to our new (old) spot in downtown Overland Park. The 90-year-old building and the homey, welcoming feel of the neighborhood are just what we were looking for. And the opportunity to design the spa from scratch means we’ll have all of the perks and amenities that we (and you) have always wanted.
So here I am, four years cancer-free and chasing a dream that I’ve had forever. I cannot thank you enough for being a part of it. I hope to see you soon in the spa in Leawood, so I can introduce you to some of our amazing new lines (with many more coming for holiday). And I can’t wait to host you in our new (old) space, sometime in January. It really is going to be a special place…you may never want to leave…