Up until March 22, 2017, butterflies had very little meaning and purple wasn’t my favorite color. On that day, my dad passed away in hospice care. A purple butterfly was placed on his door to indicate to the staff and visitors a patient had gone on to a new life.

My husband, Neil, and I have embraced a new life, too, with the opening of The Purple Butterfly, a children’s boutique in downtown Franklin, TN. We both had successful careers: Neil from founding The Wall Street Journal Online to most recently as the executive editor of the Courier- Journal in Louisville. As for me, I was a successful sales executive working with financial institutions...