Tameisha Drysdale – Celebrating special moments

TAMEISHA Drysdale knows the pain and grief of losing loved ones first-hand, and that is why she believes in celebrating special moments with the people we love while they are in our lives. After losing her mother at the tender age of two and being raised by her grand-aunt, Drysdale lost a close childhood friend in a school stabbing incident in 2007. She would, however, face her most devastating loss yet in 2011— that of her own daughter, Khyra.

“It was one week before her second birthday. She had a fever and we rushed her to the Bustamante Hospital for Children,” she recalled to All Woman. “They said all her organs had failed and she became septic. The autopsy indicated that it was an acute viral infection caused by gastroenteritis and hepatitis.”

Drysdale did not get to celebrate her daughter’s second birthday, an occasion which she was very much looking forward to. Her grief at her daughter’s passing, however, reminded her of how important family was to her, and that she should cherish the ones she had.

“Family for me is not biological. It’s the people around you who motivate and support you,” she said. “They’re the people you can depend on to be real and honest with you and you with them; the people you laugh and cry with and are not embarrassed to be yourself 100 per cent with — with no judgements.”

It was not until 2013, however, that Drysdale realised how gifted she was, and that she could help people to celebrate moments with those they love — with gifts.

“We had a birthday club at work, and each member would receive a card signed by the other members,” the human resources officer shared. “I was one of the coordinators of said club, but I had forgotten to purchase the card on a particular occasion so I decided to try my luck with a paper folder and some markers. My co-workers quickly took to the idea and thereafter no one wanted a card from the store!”

That’s where Meish started. Drysdale’s personalised, handcrafted greeting cards soon blossomed into wedding/party invitations and programmes, banners, gift baskets, personalised photo frames, photo booth frames and ribbon corsages.

“Based on the reviews from my customers, it’s just a different kind of feeling when a gift is personalised,” she beamed. “It brings new meaning to a simple card when a recipient opens it to see their photograph and read some heartfelt words, as opposed to something generic from a store.”

When Drysdale gave birth to her rainbow baby, Aiden, a few years later, her life also got new meaning, but even this blessing came with some amount of heartbreak.

“My son Aiden, who’s now three years old, was born with a medical condition called microphthalmia that causes the coloured part of the eye to be smaller than normal,” she shared. “From he was six weeks old specialists told us that he was blind, and that he would not be able to see. They wanted to do surgery on his eyes but his father and I did not want that and we decided rather to just wait and see.”

Today the parents are happy that they decided against the operation, as their rambunctious toddler sees everything, the joyful mother said. These experiences, Drysdale said, along with the miracles she saw her grand-aunt make from her meagre salary as an office attendant, are what keep her focused.

“My motivation comes from my faith in God and from just believing that everything will be okay, that everything will work itself out eventually,” she said confidently. “To see what my grand-aunt made out of that salary — owning her own home and being able to send me through school, and all of that, that definitely speaks to me. If not just for myself, I want to be successful or to become even more successful because of her and everything that I know she has sacrificed to get me to where I am today.”

Drysdale is eternally grateful for the supportive family, including her supportive spouse, with which she had been blessed, and she seeks to use her business as a tool through which others can show their families that they love them too.

After leaving her day job at the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, then caring for her family until her son’s bedtime, she gets crafty with Meish. Between personally responding to customers on Instagram @m.e.i.s.h and via e-mail, and making all the products by hand, Drysdale often burns the midnight oil leading up to an event or special occasion.

“It’s quite challenging because it’s not just the day job with the business. It’s the nine-to-five, then it’s school, because I’m currently studying, then it’s being a mother, which is a full-time job, and then also the business,” she said. “But my business is manageable because it’s not a 24/7 business. Production peaks when there is an occasion coming up such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, or an event such as a birthday party or baby shower.”

It is gruelling, but Drysdale takes the task of making people smile seriously. She thinks it is essential that we celebrate special moments.

“It’s really  just about making people happy,” she said simply. “It’s putting smiles on people’s faces and helping people to express how they feel about somebody else by gifting them something. Gifting is just a small way of saying ‘I appreciate you’, ‘I see you’, ‘thank you’ or ‘I love you’. It really is important because although we’re genuine and we don’t do things for recognition, people really want to know that you appreciate them.”