Charlene's Blog

As a wellness-based company, we have always been enthusiastic supporters of Global Wellness Day. That support sprang from our beloved Charlene Florian’s dedication to the movement and continues to grow each day in her memory – which we honor each year by sharing her Global Wellness Day 2015 blog post. We want you to hear this message in her words…

Join us as we say YES to wellness this Global Wellness Day, June 11...and every day! Established in 2012 to encourage and embrace healthy living and the wellness lifestyle worldwide, Global Wellness Day (GWD) is even more dear to us this year as Global Wellness Day 2016 is dedicated to the legacy of our beloved Chief Creative Officer, Charlene Florian. Kerstin’s daughter and pillar of the wellness community, Charlene was an early supporter of GWD and a featured speaker at GWD in Turkey in 2013. Despite her recent passing, Charlene’s passion in promoting this message will live on through our efforts and those of local and international communities that are dedicated to happiness, health and living well.

We are honored and moved by the following tribute from our friend in wellness and founder of Global Wellness Day, Belgin Aksoy. We hope it brings you the comfort and inspiration it has to us in the days since the passing of our beloved friend, family member and creative force, Charlene Florian.

Dear Partners and Friends: It is with immense sadness that we inform you that Charlene Florian, Chief Creative Officer, Kerstin Florian International passed away this weekend peacefully surrounded by her family and close friends. She was a shining light within the industry, leading the path for a healthy, more natural lifestyle touching everyone she encountered with positivity, kindness and joy. A charismatic executive with the Kerstin Florian team, a source of inspiration and knowledge to our partners globally, Charlene was a force of positive energy who embodied the Kerstin Florian brand.

Berries. Plump. Succulent. Fresh. And so wonderfully healthy for us. My fondness for berries started when I was a child – in Sweden – in my grandmother’s garden. She grew everything – potatoes, herbs, several kinds of apples, goose berries, black and red currants, raspberries, the most gorgeous roses, and so much more. My favorite were smultron, tiny wild strawberries, which my grandmother planted all over her garden. It was like an Easter egg hunt every morning, as I raced out to see which had ripened. Raspberries grew along a hedge at the back of the garden, and I remember, one year, taking my cereal bowl, feeling like I was in a sea of plump red juicy raspberries. They were everywhere. It brought me such joy – picking the juicy berries and eating half of them, and later watching a tiny black bug crawl from the bowl. I didn’t care. I was one with it all.

The excitement of summer is in the air at Kerstin Florian headquarters. That’s because of the energy, enthusiasm, and ‘magic’ we feel as we’ve been counting down to Global Wellness Day, June 13, 2015, a social movement without any commercial purpose that was started by my beautiful Turkish friend, Belgin Aksoy.