Today we’d like to introduce you to Mississippi Golden Gurls.
Hello Mississippi Golden Gurls, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, MemphisVoyager and readers! Everyone in our Mississippi Golden Gurls’ Family calls me, “Oz” and I am the mother to three beautiful, loving golden retrievers named RowanOak, Remington, and Idgie Ruth. It’s truly hard to imagine how three golden retrievers in the state of Mississippi have garnered the love and affection from hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. The best way I can explain it, is to give you a little history first.
A couple of years ago, after one too many times of losing my iPhone, I finally decided it was time to create an Instagram account. At that time, I wasn’t too savvy at backing up my phone, so when I did lose my device, I essentially lost all the precious photos of my dogs.
With Instagram, I finally had a place I could electronically catalog my favorite pictures and videos of my pups, and I always knew where I could find them. I was so relieved. I had no intention of sharing my space with anyone else. This was for me and for me only. What I didn’t know at the time was that hashtags generated traffic to one’s page. I was new to instagram.
When I made a post, I threw up a hashtag from time to time saying something like, “goldengirl,” “mygirl,” etc., not knowing it brought other instagrammers to our page. Little by little I saw random people comment on our posts and “follow” us. Long story short what initially started out as an electronic scrapbook project, ultimately evolved into something I never could have imagined.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In May 2012, I was in a car wreck that single handedly changed the trajectory of my life.
At the time, my husband and I were starting to plan for a family, my career was taking off, I was training for a half marathon-the picture of health, life couldn’t have been better. Immediately following the wreck I had neck pain. My doctor prescribed physical therapy, but it only made things worse. A month later, I had debilitating headaches, problems with speech, balance, and swallowing.
After an MRI, I was diagnosed with Chiari malformation and syringomyelia. I was immediately sent to Semmes Murphey to see a neurosurgeon. I had brain surgery a week later. While the recovery was long and excruciating, the surgery did help with the headaches, but to this day I live with chronic pain on a daily basis.
There is no cure for Chiari or Syringomyelia, but I have traveled and will continue to travel the country in an effort to find answers to my medical puzzle.
Following brain surgery, there was roughly a year and a half where I was bedridden. My pain was all consuming in a physical sense. I felt like I was on fire, and there was no end in sight.
I did everything in my power not to allow it to take over me mentally, emotionally, spiritually. That’s when I really dove into working on the Mississippi Golden Gurls’ platforms. I rarely slept, so that’s when I did a lot of the work. It gave me something to do and it helped me take my mind off the pain. Thankfully, I always had my golden girls by my side. They are the best, most loyal companions you can ask for.
I don’t know what I would have done without them. They’re truly the best nurses. So it was during this time frame when I really began to engage with the people who were interacting with our page. Until then, I had no idea what an impact our girls had on people’s lives. It blew me away. It was right then when I decided we were going to use our pages to be a source of joy for anyone who needed it. Just as my goldens brought joy to me, I realized it was only fair for me to share that same joy with the world.
Ironically, throughout this process, I feel like I have received far more joy and love from the friends we have made on these platforms than we ever could have given. What started off as an electronic scrapbook project evolved into a global family known as the Mississippi Golden Gurls Family. One that loves, respects, and adores one another.
We recently had a meet & greet in Germantown in April. We had people fly in from Oregon, Maryland, Texas, and other people came in from Meridian, Nashville just to name a few. The love people have for RowanOak, Remington, and Idgie Ruth is unlike anything I have ever seen or can explain. I guess it just boils down to the fact that we are a family.
At the end of the day our Mississippi Golden Gurls’ Facebook and Instagram pages have never been about achieving a gaudy follower count, garnering “Facebook or Instagram fame,” or chasing whatever it is so many people measure social media success upon. It’s always been about sharing the love we have for our dogs, and the love our dogs have for us.
Our priority and our mission is for our Mississippi Golden Gurls’ Family to know they have a safe place to come where they will feel loved, accepted, and regardless of what they are going through, we will deliver the joy they need to help them get through the day.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can find us on our Facebook and Instagram pages! Feel free to stop by anytime!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mississippi_golden_gurls/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mississippigoldengirls/
