If you've followed our family for a while, then you know my Fisher.
But what you probably don't see nearly as often is everything he does behind the scenes.
Fisher is one of those kids who just quietly gets things done. He works hard. He helps when something needs to be done. He carries more responsibility than I probably give him credit for, and in so many ways, he has become such a steady part of keeping our family moving forward.
There is a lot that happens in our family that never makes it onto social media, and so much of what Fisher has been doing lately has happened quietly in the background.
I've shared pieces here and there, but I haven't really shared all the details of what he's been working on, what he's been building, or the story behind something that has become incredibly special to our family.
I think I'm finally ready to tell you about it.
It's called Conway Family Properties.
Conway Family Properties is our family-owned property maintenance and outdoor service business serving families throughout the Kansas City and Liberty, Missouri area. And these days, my 18-year-old son, Fisher, is the one stepping up and taking the lead.
If you need your lawn mowed, weed eating done, a yard cleaned up, bushes trimmed, leaves or snow removed, a driveway power washed, a deck or fence stained or sealed, painting done, furniture moved, pet care or one of those random property projects you just need someone willing to tackle, that's what Conway Family Properties does.
And lately, I've been watching Fisher take more and more ownership of it.
He's talking to customers.
He's looking at jobs.
He's giving bids.
He's figuring out materials.
He's learning what his time and work are worth.
He's learning how to handle hearing “yes” and, just as importantly, how to handle hearing “no.”
He's working.
He's learning.
He's growing.
And he's beginning to ask himself what this little family business could eventually become.
But to really understand why watching Fisher do all of this means so much to me, you have to understand where Conway Family Properties came from.
Because Fisher didn't start it.
His dad did.
And what began as one of Q's ideas back in 2020 has somehow become one of the most tangible ways I'm watching his legacy live on through our son.
That's the part of this story I haven't really told.
And it's the part I'm finally ready to share.
It Started With One of Q's Ideas
It was 2020, right after COVID, when my husband came up with the idea for Conway Family Properties.
And honestly, there wasn't some elaborate business plan behind it.
There wasn't a big family meeting where we sat around the table mapping out what this business would look like five or ten years down the road.
Q had an idea.
And if you knew my husband, you know exactly what happened next.
He ran with it.
That was Q.
He was an idea guy. When something got into his head and he believed there was an opportunity there, he didn't spend forever wondering whether he should do it.
He did it.
Conway Family Properties became one of those ideas.
What began as a way to get out there, work and earn some money quickly became something Q could use to teach our kids lessons he cared deeply about.
Because Q believed in hard work.
He wanted our kids to understand what it meant to earn something for themselves.
He wanted them to know that if you told someone you were going to show up, you showed up.
If someone trusted you to do a job, you did it well.
If you didn't know how to do something, you learned.
If you made a mistake, you owned it.
And if you put the Conway name behind something, you made sure it was something you were proud of.
Eventually, the words that represented Conway Family Properties became:
Earning our way through hard work.
At the time, it was a motto.
Today, those words feel a whole lot more like a piece of Q that he left behind.
Dad, the Kids and a Whole Lot of Hard Work
In those early years, Conway Family Properties really was a family business.
Q got all of the kids involved.
And I mean all of them.
There were lawns to mow, weeds to pull, yards to clean up, things to haul, and whatever other jobs Q had managed to find for them that week.
Some days I'm sure the kids were more excited about working than others. That's probably putting it nicely.
But that was part of the point.
Q wasn't trying to raise kids who only worked when they felt like it. He wanted them to learn how to show up, finish what they started and understand the pride that comes from earning something with their own two hands.
So Dad worked right alongside them.
And those are memories that mean so much more to me now than I ever realized they would at the time.
Q and the kids out working together.
Dad teaching them how something should be done.
Dad correcting them when they tried to take a shortcut.
Dad probably making a job take twice as long because he had a very specific way he thought it should be done.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it, something started happening with Fisher.
He really liked it.
Out of all the kids, Fisher seemed to connect with Conway Family Properties in a different way.
He didn't just like earning the money.
He liked the work.
He liked going with his dad.
He liked figuring things out.
He liked seeing a job that needed to be done and then standing back afterward and seeing what they had accomplished.
And most importantly, he got something our family would eventually realize was incredibly precious:
He got to work beside his dad.
There were jobs where Q and Fisher were side by side.
There were car rides to and from those jobs.
There were conversations.
There were lessons.
There were probably disagreements.
There were moments when Dad showed him how to do something and moments when Fisher probably thought he already knew how to do it.
At the time, they were just working.
We didn't know we were supposed to memorize those moments.
We didn't know those ordinary days would someday become some of the memories we'd hold onto the tightest.
That's the thing about life.
You rarely recognize the ordinary moments that are going to become sacred while you're living them.
You think Dad and his son are just going to another job.
You assume there will be hundreds more.
You think there will always be another lawn, another project, another car ride home.
Until there isn't.
When Everything Changed
And suddenly, all of those ordinary days of Dad and Fisher working together became something entirely different.
They became part of what Q left behind.
That's one of the strangest things about grief.
You don't only grieve the person you lost.
You grieve the future they were supposed to be part of.
And that grief changes as your children grow.
There are new moments all the time when I find myself thinking:
Q should be here for this.
He should be here for the graduations.
The relationships.
The first jobs.
The mistakes.
The big decisions.
He should be sitting across the table from our kids talking about their futures.
And for Fisher, I think there's another layer to it.
Because the person who first taught him how to do so many of these jobs isn't here to watch him do them on his own.
The dad who worked beside him isn't here to see him give his own bids.
He isn't here to watch Fisher talk to customers.
He isn't here to see his son begin thinking about how to grow Conway Family Properties.
He isn't here to see that the kid who used to tag along on jobs with Dad is now becoming the young man taking the lead.
And that one gets me.
Because Q didn't get to see where those days working side by side with Fisher would lead.
He didn't get to know that of all the kids he brought along and tried to teach through this little family business, Fisher would be the one who grabbed onto it and didn't want to let it go.
But I get to see it.
And sometimes when I watch Fisher working now, I can't help but think about those two together all those years ago.
Dad and his boy.
Just doing a job.
Neither of them knowing that Q wasn't only teaching Fisher how to mow a lawn, clean up a property or finish a project.
He was quietly giving his son something he could carry with him long after Dad was gone.
And now, as Fisher steps into his senior year and starts trying to figure out what comes next, I think we're beginning to see just how much those years beside his dad shaped him.
Fisher Is Carrying Conway Family Properties Forward
What makes me especially proud right now is that Fisher isn't just talking about what Conway Family Properties could become.
He's actually going out and doing the work.
He's finding jobs.
He's talking to customers.
He's giving bids.
He's figuring out what needs to be done.
And when a job is bigger than what he can handle by himself, he's learning how to find friends who are willing to come alongside him and help get it done.
That may sound simple, but to me, it says a lot.
He's learning how to lead.
He's learning how to communicate.
He's learning how to depend on other people and how to make sure they can depend on him too.
He's learning that running a business isn't just about doing the work yourself.
Sometimes it's about bringing the right people with you.
Sometimes it's about asking for help.
Sometimes it's about making sure everyone knows what needs to be done and then figuring it out together.
And I think Q would absolutely love that.
Because this is exactly the kind of real-life experience he wanted Conway Family Properties to give our kids.
Fisher is learning by doing.
He's learning in backyards, on driveways, around decks, at job sites and in conversations with customers.
He's learning what happens when a bid gets accepted.
He's learning what happens when it doesn't.
He's learning how long jobs really take.
He's learning that there are days when everything goes according to plan and days when absolutely nothing does.
He's learning how to problem-solve.
And little by little, he's learning what it means to be responsible for something that has his family's name attached to it.
And Then Came a Trip That Opened His Eyes
That made his recent trip with one of Q's best friends even more meaningful.
One of Q's good college friends, Justin Horne, invited Fisher to spend a few days with him and shadow what entrepreneurship looks like on a larger scale.
Fisher flew to Florida to meet Justin and then traveled with him to Georgia.
For those few days, Fisher got to step outside the size and scope of Conway Family Properties and see what business can look like when it grows.
He saw construction projects.
He saw property management.
He saw job sites.
He saw meetings.
He saw decisions being made in real time.
He saw problems that needed solving.
He saw the responsibility that comes with leading people and taking care of customers.
And most importantly, he got to ask questions.
I think there is something incredibly valuable about letting an 18-year-old see the real version of entrepreneurship.
Not just the exciting parts.
Not just the wins.
But the responsibility, the long days, the decisions and the work behind all of it.
Because Fisher is at such an interesting point in his life right now.
He's heading into his senior year of high school.
He's trying to figure out what comes next.
And I don't think one trip gave him every answer.
I don't think it was supposed to.
But I do think it opened his eyes.
It showed him what is possible.
It gave him new ideas.
It gave him people to learn from.
And it made him look at Conway Family Properties with a bigger perspective.
Bringing Those Lessons Back Home
Now, what I love is watching Fisher come back home and continue doing what he's always done.
Working.
Calling customers.
Looking at jobs.
Finding friends to help him.
Getting his hands dirty.
But now, I think he's looking at it all a little differently.
He's thinking about how to grow.
He's thinking about how to lead.
He's thinking about how to build a reputation.
He's thinking about how to take care of customers well enough that they call him again.
He's thinking about what Conway Family Properties could become if he keeps showing up and doing the work.
And that feels so full-circle to me.
Q started this business because he had an idea and he ran with it.
He got the kids involved.
He worked alongside them.
He used the business to teach them that hard work matters.
And of all the kids, Fisher really took to it.
Now Fisher is the one finding the jobs.
He's the one bringing friends along.
He's the one making decisions.
He's the one learning how to lead.
He's the one asking what comes next.
And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I can still see Q.
Not because Fisher is trying to become his dad.
He isn't.
Fisher gets to become his own man.
But I can see the foundation Q laid.
I can see the lessons.
I can see the work ethic.
I can see the willingness to try.
I can see the courage to take an idea and run with it.
And I think that's what makes me so emotional about Conway Family Properties now.
It isn't frozen in the past.
It's moving forward.
Fisher is moving it forward.
His Dad Started It. Fisher Is Building on It.
I have no idea what Conway Family Properties will look like five or ten years from now.
Maybe Fisher grows it into something much bigger.
Maybe someday there are crews all over Kansas City.
Maybe there are trucks, employees, larger projects and opportunities we can't even imagine yet.
Or maybe this business simply teaches Fisher everything he needs to learn for whatever God has for him next.
Either way, I know this:
Q started something that mattered.
And Fisher is carrying it.
He's taking the lessons his dad taught him on those early jobs and applying them now.
He's taking the opportunity Justin gave him and bringing those lessons home.
He's learning from the people around him.
He's working with his friends.
He's building relationships.
He's taking risks.
He's making mistakes.
He's figuring things out.
And he's continuing to earn his way through hard work.
Fisher, your dad would be so proud of you.
He'd be proud of the jobs you're getting.
He'd be proud of the jobs you're learning from.
He'd be proud of the friends you're bringing alongside you.
He'd be proud that you're willing to learn from people who know more than you.
He'd be proud that you're not waiting until you have everything figured out before you start.
And I think more than anything, he'd be proud that you're taking something he started and refusing to let it stop with him.
That is what legacy looks like to me now.
A father starts something.
A son picks it up.
And then he carries it forward.
Conway Family Properties.
Earning our way through hard work.
Dad started it.
Fisher is building on it.
And I truly believe we're only seeing the beginning of what this could become.
