Luna's Light is owned and operated by Michele and Kelly McBride.

Michele stewards the creative vision and long-term strategic goals of Luna's Light and oversees product manufacturing and sales and distribution. Michele has a B.A. in liberal arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and an A.A. from Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. She has a background in higher education administration, specifically in marketing and continuing education programming. After living in the Pacific Northwest for almost ten years, she recently returned to Cleveland to launch Luna's Light.

Kelly manages all internal day-to-day operations and supervises the company's financial and accounting functions. She develops packaging designs and creates and implements new product ideas. Kelly has a B.A. in psychology from Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and was accepted into the National Honor Society of Psychology. She also has an A.A. from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She is trained and certified in trauma and conflict mediation and is in the process of completing her counseling master's degree.

Our Journey

In the spring of 2003, Kelly was planning her wedding scheduled for June 2004. However, in July of 2003, Shannon, our youngest sister, unexpectedly died from complications after tonsillectomy surgery. Our entire world stopped and our joy turned to unimaginable tears.

Shannon was 22 years old at the time of her death, and because the surgery was "routine", no one expected to bury her two weeks later. Our home was filled with friends and family and beautiful arrangements of flowers. Hundreds of cards came in the mail. Her church service was echoed by the sad tune of the bagpipes. The funeral procession was over a mile long with police blocking intersections. Her casket was placed delicately in the wall of a mausoleum - for we couldn't bear the thought of her beneath the cold earth. Family and friends gathered at the local party center to talk about memories and then left saying, "If you need anything, let me know." With the funeral over and her body buried, her bedroom empty and silent, with dying flowers, and cards offering only cliché and repetitive hollow script, we felt more alone than ever. We now had the difficult task of learning to live without our sister's physical presence.

A few months after Shannon's death, Kelly was overcome by grief and felt like she needed to wear something on her body that signified she was hurting from the loss of Shannon - especially on the day of returning to work or in other social situations. Kelly could not find the products she wanted in any retail store, so she began brainstorming ideas of products she needed to help with her unexpected transition. Kelly and Michele began researching bereavement gifts and were amazed by the lack of comfort gifts in the marketplace. So, Michele moved back to Cleveland from Seattle and Luna's Light was launched.

Our Mission

We designed our company with an emphasis on honoring Shannon's spirit and incorporated our mission around her beliefs. Our company's mission is to make grieving an acceptable part of the post-death experience by developing distinctive bereavement products and services that are high quality, non-denominational and earth-friendly.

Our guiding principles include developing innovative, high-quality remembrance products and services through an exceptional combination of creativity, compassion, technology, insight, sustainability and customer feedback. Other principles include validating the pain and suffering associated with grieving regardless of religious belief or the length of the post-death experience. We operate our company with integrity and honesty. We recognize the spiritual experience associated with the death of a loved one, and preserve the environment by incorporating an earth-friendly philosophy throughout our business.

Our Company's Name

Luna's Light is named after our sister Shannon. Her nickname was "Luna", which in Spanish means moon. We felt if we added the word "Light", it would mean moonlight and symbolically represent Shannon's light. Even though we can't see her, we feel Shannon is always with us. Thus, we find a parallel to the moon, as it too is always there, even on the darkest night.

Our Creations

Because we live only two miles away from Lake Erie, one of the world's largest sources of fresh water, we were inspired to preserve and protect the natural beauty of this wondrous lake. With the lake in mind, we design and create all of our products to be earth-friendly and to leave a small ecological footprint on Earth. We strive to include recycled paper in our products, wrapping and boxes. We review environmental impacts in the decisions we make during the production of our creations as well.

Living in Northeast Ohio, we have observed first hand the negative impact of products manufactured overseas through the economic demise of our region. We pride ourselves in offering products that are handmade, and if possible, are produced by local or regional artists and manufacturers. We have also made it a priority to manufacture all of our products within the United States and North America.

Finally, we integrate the latest psychological theories on loss and grief into our product designs by utilizing Kelly's background in psychology and counseling.

Our Inspiration

Shannon McBride was born in September of 1980 in South Euclid, Ohio and was the youngest of three sisters. She followed in her sisters' footsteps and graduated from Brush High School in 1998. At the time of her death, she was employed by Progressive Insurance as a claims contact representative and was planning to attend a four-year college to complete a business administration degree. She was two months shy of her twenty-third birthday when she died.

Shannon was very modest and even a bit shy - except when she was on the volleyball court or softball field. She was a member of Lakeland Community College's women's volleyball team in 1998. That year, they won the state championship and she ranked in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Top Ten for Kill Percentage (.38 season). In 1999, she was named the NJCAA Regional MVP (Most Valuable Player). Shannon also excelled as a "lefty" pitcher in Slow Pitch softball and led teams to numerous championships, most recently the 2002 Mayfield Village Parks and Recreation Adult Co-Ed Softball League Championship.

Shannon was a charter member of the Greater Cleveland Police Emerald Society (an Irish-American law enforcement association) and also a member of the Greater Cleveland Police Memorial Society. As a teenager, she was a drummer in the Memorial Society pipe band and marched in many funerals, parades, and memorials. Her favorite marches were the National Conference of Law Enforcement Emerald Societies Memorial Marches and Services in Washington, D.C. and the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland. Because she was a charter member of the Greater Cleveland Police Emerald Society and Memorial Society, she was buried with the honors equivalent to a fallen officer and had a police escort from the funeral home to the cemetery over one mile long. It is estimated that over 1,500 people visited the family during the funeral.

Shannon had long, blonde hair and gray-blue eyes with a beautiful smile that would light up a room. She loved to shop - and left behind piles of clothes with the tags still on! In her spare time, she was very artistic and crafted handmade beaded jewelry and ceramic sculptures. She was a renown gift giver in our family, always creating or going out of her way to prepare something for a birthday, holiday or just because. Her spirit was intense. Her soul was simple. She was the perfect friend, as she always was there in good times and bad, and held tightly to her core values and beliefs. Shannon taught us more than we ever needed to know. She is our inspiration. And forever, she is always with us, "even on the darkest night."