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Some books entertain. Some teach. And some feel like a mirror, reflecting bits of our life—or the life of people we love—so clearly it takes our breath away. Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life by Julianna Margulies did this for me. But instead of seeing myself in its pages, I saw her: my best friend Sunny, a real-life “sunshine girl” who turned shattered beginnings into a life that glows.

Her smile is bright enough to light a room. Her eyes always shine. Call her my Sunshine Girl, please. Here’s her story—a reminder that even the most fractured soil can grow something lovely.

Love Seeds Planted in Grandma’s Garden

Like Margulies, Sunny’s childhood wasn’t easy. Her parents faded from her life early, leaving her with grandparents who loved fiercely but struggled to make ends meet. Her grandma, though, had a gift: she turned their small yard into a garden bursting with color. Sunflowers stood tall as sentinels, roses blushed red, and marigolds glowed like tiny suns.

“Love’s the best fertilizer,” her grandma would say, teaching her to save seeds in old jam jars labeled Hope and Courage. That garden wasn’t just flowers—it was a lesson: Even when life feels barren, you can grow something good.

Growing Through the Cracks

Life threw storms her way, but she learned to bend, not break. Margulies writes about finding strength in chaos—as Sunny also did.

Loving pets was inked in her DNA. Take Pepper, the scrappy stray dog she rescued at 12. Her grandma sighed but helped her create a bed from a cardboard box when she brought her home with the school uniforms. Now, decades later, she still volunteers at animal shelters. “They heal us as much as we heal them,” she says.

And when her grandparents grew frail, she became their rock. She cooked their meals, drove Grandpa to chemo in snowfall, and sat for hours listening to Grandma’s tangled memories. When Grandma whispered, “Don’t forget to keep our garden alive and full of love,” she nodded. She kept that promise. Even now, the garden blooms—every petal a reminder of her grandmother’s love.

She loves to wear earrings fashioned of dried flowers and jokes, “Do I look like a sunflower today?” (The answer is always yes.) Her smile never disappears; it is always brilliant under the sun. She always puts the framed poster of Grandma’s garden on her desk, a daily reminder of all the good days grandparents had left.

Messages from My Sunshine Girl

Here are the messages from my Sunshine Girl:

To anyone feeling lost: Plant something. Even in cracks.

To the lonely: Listen. Every weed has a story.

To the tired: Rest. Sunflowers don’t stay open all night.

This isn’t a story of fame or fairy-tale endings. It’s quieter. Truer. Julianna Margulies wrote Sunshine Girl, but Sunny lives it—proof that resilience isn’t about avoiding darkness, but learning to grow toward the light anyhow.

"The thing is, we all proceed a lot more unconsciously, mechanically, than we would care to admit, and to do otherwise requires tremendous strength, and a constant effort not to lie to ourselves, which is something I’m trying to do with all of my might."

—Julianna Margulies

Who’s your Sunshine Girl? The one who turns pain into purpose, cracks into gardens? Share us with her story. Sometimes the brightest lives shine softly, right beside us.

For every woman who plants hope in hard places.