beachbites PEOPLE | CULTURE | HAPPENINGS | TRENDS
Live Out Loud
Quotes, Images, Inspiration
In five-by-seven-inch cards, Chrissy Ogden Marsh matches images and quotes to inspire and com-fort
others. Marsh, 50, began her card business, Bonair Daydreams, in 1993 after the overwhelming
response she received from friends and relatives about the bereavement card she designed for the
funeral of her older sister, Tracy Ogden.
“I feel like that was my giving back to her life,” Marsh says. “She was so inspirational when she was sick.”
Ogden, who was one year older than Marsh, became ill at age 23 with an unidentified type of cancer and
suffered for 15 months before she passed away.
The bereavement card featured a photograph taken by Marsh of a silhouette of Ogden dancing on a
rooftop in San Francisco with a hand-written Bible quote from Ecclesiastes 3:4, “A time to weep and a time to
laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.”
When Ogden went to San Diego State University as a musical theater major, Marsh followed and majored
in TV and film.
“We did everything together,” Marsh says, holding a photo collage of the sisters together as clowns, and in
high school, drill team and ballet.
First from her home on Harbor Island, now from her home office on Greenville Loop Road, family is the
inspiration behind her Bonair Daydreams, as is the creation of each card series. Marsh and her mother,
Annella Ogden, collaborate on the telephone about ideas for what is written inside of the cards. Marsh’s
daughters, Annie, 16, and Lily, 13, often model for the photos and help weed out quotes scribbled on
sticky notes and stuck to images during the creative process.
“They live and breathe it with me,” Marsh says. “My kids have always been in cards, so they don’t think any-thing
of it anymore.”
Spending time with her children and her furry companions, Cross and Chance, are the best gifts of her
business, she says.
Recently, Marsh received an online order for 100 identical cards. The amount caught her eye.
“It was an important card, because it reminds me of Tracy’s card in my daughter’s version,” Marsh says.
Personally answering each email order as she always does, Marsh inquired about the purpose of the
100-card order. The buyer replied, saying the cards were being used as bereavement cards following the
funeral of her daughter. The card was framed on her daughter’s wall in her beach house, where her mom
says she lived out loud, like the card reads.
“I started to cry, actually,” Marsh says. “I keep every email I get. … They’re complete strangers, but I love
that you can get so close to somebody, and that’s the beauty of words.”
In August, Chrissy and her daughters traveled to New York City for birthday celebrations, where several
photo opportunities presented themselves to Marsh.
“This little girl was just walking down in Greenwich Village,” Marsh says. “Images like that, you’re like,
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WBM may 2013
by KELLY CORBETT