Our Story
Creating Flying Flower Ranch,LLC
My mother, Majliss (My-Liss )was a Swedish Immigrant and came to America at the age of 18 as an aupair. She did not speak English when she arrived in the US. She says she taught herself how to speak by watching soap operas 😂 and how to write using phonetics. Mom married my dad and had two children; my sister and I. Shortly after my birth, my parents divorced (I guess I was a difficult baby😂). My mother raised my sister and I as a single parent for the most part. She taught us how to be respectful, kind, loving, loyal, and giving. She also taught us to have manners, be strong and independent. We learned that if we got “the look” we’d best shape our @sses up!
My mother endured many life challenges with a minimal support system, but she always got through. She was an animal lover to the core and got both my sister and I into riding horses when we were young. Mom rode for a Swedish Military Riding School when she was a child. Mom adored nature and repeatedly remarked on its beauty. She ALWAYS stopped to smell the roses (even at the most inconvenient times 🙈).
She adored her grandkids and lived to talk to them and about them; often asking me how they were before asking how I was! Nothing made her happier than being included in their various activities.
In October 2014, my mother passed away from complications of leg amputation surgery. The surgery was intended to be a life saving measure to treat a severe MRSA infection in her leg.
Her passing was the beginning of a very difficult year for me. Four months after my mother passed, my father passed due to Parkinson’s complications. To add to the emotional challenge, I was present to remove life support and watch him pass slowly. Both these events occurred during the time I was going through a divorce. I can tell you there is nothing that prepares you for life’s s**t storms. You have to hold onto, and fight, for something that keeps your sail upright, so you can ride the storms out. For me it was my children; knowing they were at a critical point in their lives and needed me to have my mind “in the game”.
I felt myself going down an unhealthy mental path I did not want to go down. After a lot of reflection on my life and my future, I decided to follow a lifelong dream of owning and running a ranch. I owned a summer home in Sunriver, Oregon. I loved that house for its location and feeling of peace. I decided Central Oregon is where I wanted to find my future ranch.
Initially, it was just a plan; something I was looking into. But, the first property I stepped foot on, set that plan into play quicker than I thought. Peaceful, beautiful, comforting, and inspiring, without even entering the house; I decided this was going to be my future.
The property was exactly what I was looking for; beautiful but also needed a lot of love and work to get it to meet its full potential.
Now I needed a name worthy of the property’s meaning to me. Through the process of remembering and honoring my mom, common themes reoccurred: spiritual rebirth, transformation, creativity, endless potential, vibrant joy, change, ascension, and an ability to experience the wonder of life. These are all things that butterflies represent. Further, my mothers favorite dog breed is a “Papillon” and we released butterflies at her celebration of life.
At that moment, I knew butterflies had to be a part of the ranch and I hoped to find a name which somehow included them. After much thought, it finally came to me.... a flying flower is a butterfly! My sister sketched the original Ranch logo using a unique butterfly pin my mom had and I had a graphic designer put it into a digital format. As the ranch developed, grew and changed, we needed to condense the logo for other applications and for our livestock brand. My mothers butterfly pin remains in our latest “FFR” logo/brand.
