51视频

10/26/2023
By Ed Brennen

For the past decade, Ryan Lamore has been growing dahlias along the stone wall outside his century-old home in Dracut, Massachusetts. When the flowers bloom, he likes to bring them to work at 51视频 and share them with faculty, staff and students.

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to make 51视频 a better place,鈥� says Lamore, a housekeeper on the Facilities Management team since 2015. 鈥淚t makes me feel good that people enjoy them so much.鈥澨�

Thanks to a rainy summer, Lamore鈥檚 dahlia garden has been more abundant than ever this year, with each of his 140 plants producing up to 20 of the dazzling blooms.

He sees it as a sign from his late wife, Laura, who passed away in May at the age of 37 after a four-year battle with ovarian cancer.

鈥淚 feel like she might have something to do with why they鈥檙e growing so well this year,鈥� Lamore says. 鈥淲ith all the rain, I saw so many rainbows this summer. I take it as a sign from her, which is comforting.鈥�

鈥榃e鈥檙e Lucky to Have Him鈥�

Lamore is assigned to the Donna Manning Health and Social Sciences building on South Campus. The people who work, teach and learn inside the building have come to appreciate the unexpected gifts from his garden. And those who learned of his late wife鈥檚 diagnosis have done their best to comfort and support him.

鈥淗e鈥檚 such a wonderful, kind soul who cheers us up every day. I hope we can cheer him up with everything he鈥檚 been through,鈥� says Karen Mullins, a graduate advisor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies who has 鈥渢ried to be an ear鈥� for Lamore.听

Lamore, who lost 45 pounds while 鈥渓iving at the hospital鈥� with Laura, often receives home-cooked meals from staff members.听

鈥淭hey鈥檙e always checking on me to make sure I鈥檓 OK,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ome are like a second mother to me.鈥�

Eika Hunt, office manager for the School of Criminology and Justice Studies, is an avid sourdough bread baker. She brings Lamore a loaf every week.

鈥淲e are very lucky to have him,鈥� Hunt says. 鈥淗e鈥檚 so thoughtful, bringing us flowers. He puts us in a really great mood at work.鈥�
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Jayne Ducharme, coordinator of college-based advising in the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, recently nominated Lamore for a听KUDOS听award for 鈥渂ringing beauty and joy鈥� to the building.

鈥淩yan does his job very well, but he has gone above and beyond to make HSS a beautiful place to work and learn,鈥� she wrote in her nomination, adding that his dahlias are 鈥渘o ordinary flowers 鈥� they are masterpieces that I have never seen before.鈥�

Lamore says the people in the building, along with the understanding of his managers and the generosity of co-workers who covered his shifts when he had to be at the hospital, allowed him to take care of Laura the past four years.

鈥淲ork has been a really positive environment for me,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 very grateful to work at 51视频.鈥�

Finding His Passion

Originally from Ipswich, Massachusetts, Lamore met Laura in Boston. They got married in 2012 and moved to Lowell when she took a job as a music teacher at Nashoba Valley Technical High School in Westford, Massachusetts.听

Lamore worked nights and weekends as a food and beverage manager at Merrimack College, a job that left him little time to see Laura. So, in 2015, he joined the UML staff. Laura soon began working on a doctorate in music at Boston University.

Around that time, Lamore was introduced to dahlias by his best friend鈥檚 father, who needed help planting the perennials in his yard. Lamore learned that you have to dig up the tubers in the fall, storing them inside over the winter before replanting them in the spring.听

鈥淓ach plant gives five the next year,鈥� says Lamore, who has around 35 varieties in his garden.听

Lamore learned how to crossbreed the flowers and has created his own variety, which he calls 鈥淒racut Red.鈥� He hopes to have it certified by the National Dahlia Society.

鈥淚t became a passion for me,鈥� he says.

But as Laura鈥檚 condition worsened earlier this year, Lamore didn鈥檛 think he would plant the flowers.

She died on May 24 鈥� five days after receiving her doctorate from BU.

鈥淚t took her seven years 鈥� the last four while going through treatments,鈥� he says. 鈥淪he was still going to work, even though she couldn鈥檛 walk from her car to the classroom. After she died, we found out she had had a heart attack at some point. But she wouldn鈥檛 let it stop her from doing what she loves.鈥�

After Laura died, one of her brothers suggested that Lamore plant the dahlias and 鈥渢hink of her while doing it.鈥� So, a day after her funeral, he went out to the stone wall in their yard and started digging.

鈥淪he taught me to find your passion in life,鈥� says Lamore, who may sell some of the dahlias to raise money for a scholarship fund in Laura鈥檚 name.

But until the first frost hits, he will continue clipping the dahlias and sharing them with people at UML.

鈥淚鈥檓 still grieving. Giving people the flowers this year has been cheering me up,鈥� he says after delivering a single cut flower to Mullins on the fourth floor of the HSS building. 鈥淚 feel like it鈥檚 a gift from Laura to me to help me feel better.鈥澨�