Suffering from a heart attack can be eye-opening for some. It’s a reminder to take care of your health, be more conscious of your diet and activity, to cherish those around you, and so much more. Now, what if you are diagnosed with a lifetime condition that inhibits your ability to do so after the already traumatic event? What now? That’s what Veronica Garcia, the proud owner of Fragments of Vee, a sewing business that specializes in memory bears, had to figure out.
Garcia had been living a pretty normal life. She was staying active, going to the gym five times a week with her sister. She went to amusement parks with her family. She was on her way up the ladder at her job, soon to become a part of management until she had suffered a week long heart attack. Up until the event, she was doing everything right.
“We were eating healthy. I had lost 40 pounds. I was very active,” Garcia states. “There was nothing wrong with me that would be considered a normal heart patient.”
Garcia had suffered from a heart attack that had lasted a week long. Garcia noted that heart attacks in women are different from those in men.
During this time, she was still going to family events and still trying to stay active at the gym. The day that she first went to the hospital for her condition, she was at a Zumba class with her family.
“Everything pretty much changed in the three-minute warm-up at the Zumba session. My life changed right then.”
Garcia was unable to get through the first warm-up and had stepped out of class. Her trainer had gone to check on her and, when realizing something was wrong, offered to call an
ambulance. Garcia had refused, thinking she was just not feeling good that day. She would eventually leave with her mother, and in the car, they decided to go to urgent care.
“I was turning white (her hands)…I was still arguing that I was fine. It was just a cold.” Garcia restates.
At the hospital, they took her straight to the back. While they understood what was happening was serious, the medical staff didn’t think she was actually having a heart attack. They had thought she had injured her chest during a workout. They made Garcia walk all throughout the hospital while dealing with an ongoing heart attack until they figured out she actually was.
Garcia’s condition was labeled “thin arteries”, a genetic disorder that was the cause of the heart attack. This condition makes her prone to Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) heart attacks. This particular instance was her second heart attack she’s suffered.
Having thin arteries, it’s important that her blood pressure doesn’t exceed 120. This makes everyday life harder for most. Activities like walking, while less intensive, can still cause your blood pressure to go up. Laughing, getting upset, being too hot, or being too cold all affect your blood pressure.
“People don’t realize how much your blood pressure can go up,” Garcia states. “Even if your blood pressure drops too quickly, that puts you in danger too.”
Garcia has learned that she needs to train her heart to adjust to her new lifestyle.
“It’s going to be monitored for the rest of my life,” she tells us.
Her many trips to the hospital at this time led to her diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, another chronic condition that causes widespread pain, fatigue, and other symptoms. Already having cluster migraines before the incident, this news makes her life even tougher. She was told that
she couldn’t do anything she used to. She couldn’t work without restrictions that employers could not meet. She couldn’t work out the same. Everything had changed.
“I freaked out,” Garcia recalls from this realization. “When you get ill, when you get sick like I did, they send you to a bunch of classes on how to deal with it.”
Garcia dealt with PTSD and anxiety at the time, and she still deals with depression.
“You just kind of figure it out as you go, you find ways. Just kind of navigating through.” Garcia reassures us.
Garcia gives credit to her family for helping her through the early parts of this time in her life. Her family kept her spirits high and helped her not to go through this alone.
“I have a strong family backing. They tend to help me out. They help figure things out for me,” she tells us. “They made sure I wasn’t sitting in a chair moping around all day, like I was initially.”
Fragments of Vee began during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Garcia and her sister, Christina Diosomito learned how to sew in an effort to make stylish face coverings to protect their family and friends. The sisters’ new sewing hobby was also a way to avoid lying around snacking all day during lockdown. The more confident they got in their sewing abilities, the more challenges they tackled when friends would ask for certain things.
“So we started with the masks, then someone asked me to make a bear, so I made one. Then my sister needed a purse, so we made one.” Garcia recalls the creation of their small business.
Fragments of Vee attended their first craft fair in July 2021. At the time, they featured only small to medium-sized bears of a variety of patterns. Garcia had brought her first memory bear as a display. This fair was a success as she served many happy customers and began
receiving orders for larger-sized, custom memory bears. The memory bears that were ordered would be made out of a customer’s relative’s clothing as a way of preserving their memory.
“We try to keep the price down so that people can pay for something affordable for their family members that passed or keeping a memory alive,” Garcia states.
The success from their first craft fair would continue to grow their business. Her social media went from 10 followers consisting mostly of family members to 1,500 followers of happy customers, people interested in making orders, vendors she had met, etc.
While her business had found success in the local community, Garcia still deals with the aftermath of her heart attack and the other issues that came with it. Fatigue, headaches, and just the overall feeling of being sick constantly can get in the way of her work. Garcia, however, pushes through this feeling in order to complete orders and to be a good business owner.
Garcia boasts fast communication between customers and the willingness to complete customer requests, even if it doesn’t align with their normal product selection.
“If they want a lovey, we make a lovey. If they want a pillow, we make it. If they want an elephant, we’ll make an elephant.” Garcia states. “We pretty much try to make their dream come alive by creating whatever they want.”
Garcia found a way to make a living despite being told she couldn’t work a normal job. Through her small business rooted in a strong family bond, she is able to provide others with joy and help them preserve whatever memories they can think of. Whether it’s a bear of their child’s favorite television show, a lovey for their daughter who’s expecting, or memory bears made from a recently deceased relative’s favorite t-shirt, Fragments of Vee is here to serve.