As I approach my 49th birthday, I’ve started thinking about my legacy. Twenty years, owning our own store, has gone by so fast. I’ve learned so much but I think I have so much still to learn. I’ve educated myself by trial & error and working with people with many years of flower shop experience. I wonder if Grandma & Grandpa Bicek felt the same when they started the business, did they think their legacy would be continued 80 years later?

Ribbon Cutting at Heritage House Florist
George & Rose Bicek started their business with little experience in the flower business but Grandpa Bicek was very determined to be his own man running his own business. With lovely Rose at his side they build a family business that still continues, that to me is a beautiful, American story. Grandpa built a stunning building at 2500 S Christiana in Chicago and lived above the shop. He delivered his arrangements on the street car and started a family. Years later their daughter Bernadette worked in the shop and after a romantic military courtship she wed her beloved Jimmy who also joined the business. Jim & Bernie ran the business for many years as their family grew.
My husband Richard started working for Grandpa Bicek as a young teen. To hear him talk about working with his grandpa and his dad is so sweet. They were his idols, Grandpa Bicek was tough and tough on him, but Rich saw a smart, hardworking business man and really admired these qualities. How smart of Rich, at such a young age to admire someone for being a hard worker. Rich’s dad, my father in law, was a respected, strong, John Wayne type of guy. He was funny and also worked hard at a business he married into.
Rich never worked anywhere else except the flower shop. When we got married, he was already running Bicek’s House of Flowers. His parents came home on busy holidays to help in the shop. We started our family and Rich’s dad thought Rich should look at a shop in Downers Grove. They met with the Nelson Family, who were selling the shop because of illness in the family. They said they would only sell their family business to someone that would run it the way they did. With love and respect and hard work. I was pregnant with my first child when we bought Heritage House Florist.
I did not work at the shop right away, but after a couple of years, Rich asked me to come and help with the bookkeeping “just a few hours a week”. I started doing bookkeeping, as Rich traveled back & forth between stores. After 9 years we sold Bicek’s House of Flowers to a long time employee and ran Heritage House Florist together. Over the years I added a few jobs to my list, customer service, marketing, IT, community relations, purchasing, plant department and even some maintenance. Rich handles all design, purchasing, delivery, building management and so much more. We love working hard and having a full day of making people happy with our flowers.
Can you imagine life without flowers? God created these beautiful miracles and we get to see this amazing beauty everyday. I know flowers brings joy & comfort to the people we deliver them, I think that is why flowers were created. I can’t help but love the product we sell for this reason. But I know without the family legacies set before us we would not know how to achieve our goals. I’m so sad when I hear when a small family business fails, but I’m also reminded how lucky we are and proud that we continue to succeed, especially selling something like flowers a perishable, non-essential product.
We are now starting a fourth generation business, which I think is very rare. Our boys Ricky & Danny both work at the shop part time. We try to show them the importance of taking pride in our family business. I think with hard work and pride anything is possible.