REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — A funny thing, time.
It’s taken for granted while we have it and it’s often only appreciated when it’s gone.
In the front yard of Jasmine Cloe’s Reynoldsburg home is a display that is small in nature, but is big on making time count.
“It represents happiness to me,” she said. “They’re so sweet. It’s fairytales and things of imagination and magic.”
Imagination. Magic. Fairytales; themes in Cloe’s household.
"It just brings happiness, I think,” she said.
A mindset she wanted to share. A moment for others to appreciate time.
“If you’re just doing everything; rushing through life ‘I gotta get this done, I gotta get that done’…you run out of time.”
It started just off her front sidewalk. The perfect place for a fairy garden. Every collection starts somewhere and Jasmine’s started with a tiny fairy house she got 12 years ago. It’s faded, but her favorite.
Her creations are fully supported by her husband, Freddy.
“Jasmine is a force of nature,” he said.
The secret to a 27-year marriage, he says, is to every day be “crazy about her.”
That’s why he does it.
“I love her to death and I like to see her happy,” he said.
That’s why one garden turned to two and it eventually expanded to a Little Free Library.
“Fairy wands,” Jasmine said, grabbing a wooden stick with a pink streamer attached at the end. “It’s got a little magic. The boys love them, too,” she said smiling.
In just a few short weeks it’s become a neighborhood destination. The passerbys. The looks. She’s used to them.
“[The] reaction,” she said, laughing. “Yes!”
Children, families and strangers stop by to take in Cloe’s magic and spark of imagination. They stop to take pictures and stare in awe at her creation.
It’s well worth the time she has left.
“[Doctors] said probably two to three years,” she said. “It spread to the bones and in my liver. I’ve got about two to three years to really make a mark.”
A breast cancer stage one diagnosis in 2016 led to a double mastectomy. In 2018 a relapse led to aggressive chemo treatments. In 2020 it came back; metastatic breast cancer stage four. Chemo treatments, now, are three weeks on and one week off just trying to keep it from progressing.
On days after treatment where Cloe doesn’t quite feel up to having company, she can still see that neighborhood interaction from inside her home thanks to her Ring surveillance system.
“When I’m in the house and then the Ring tells me somebody’s outside I can look at it and see what’s going on and see if they’re going to walk around the garden and it just makes me happy,” she said.
And when the time comes to an end all that’s left is a lasting legacy.
“I think that’s the best way I can share my eternal love for Jas [is] to ensure this legacy continues,” Freddy said. “I hope our daughters and our grandchildren will recognize this as part of Jas’s legacy and cherish it as much as I do.”
“They’ve promised me they’re gonna keep it going,” Jasmine said of her family. “I’d love to be watching from above.”
A funny thing, time. There’s a beginning and an end. All that matters is what you do in between.
“Take some time,” Jasmine said. “Stop. Look around. Breathe. It’s just gonna make the world a better place.”
The family has set up a Go Fund Me fundraiser to help Jasmine and Freddy with medical costs.