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Bits ‘n Pieces: Family retrieves tile in daughter’s memory

By Adam Littman, Columbian Staff Writer
Published: January 29, 2015, 4:00pm
2 Photos
Lonnelle Sawyer holds the tile that her daughter, Karli Carson Cole, painted for the Nordstrom remodel 19 years ago, when she was just 6 years old. Cole died in a house fire with her two young daughters on Feb.
Lonnelle Sawyer holds the tile that her daughter, Karli Carson Cole, painted for the Nordstrom remodel 19 years ago, when she was just 6 years old. Cole died in a house fire with her two young daughters on Feb. 28, 2014. Photo Gallery

When Lonnelle Sawyer of Vancouver packed her bag for work Jan. 23, she brought with her an unusual item: a nearly 20-year-old floor tile from the recently closed Nordstrom at Westfield Vancouver mall.

The once-white tile is painted with a colorful butterfly and purple background, and at the bottom is a girl’s name, Karli, and her age, 6. More than 19 years ago, Nordstrom’s children’s department was remodeling, and local kids were invited to paint floor tiles.

Sawyer remembers taking her then-6-year-old daughter, Karli Carson Cole, to the store and watching her struggle while deciding what to paint. She eventually went with a butterfly, one with a yellow body and green, blue and red wings. Sawyer doesn’t know why her daughter picked the butterfly, but now it’s something she can barely look away from.

For Sawyer, it’s another positive memory of a daughter she lost nearly a year ago.

In February, Cole’s mobile home in Seal Rock, Ore., caught fire, killing her and her two children, Serenity, 2, and 18-month-old Sophia.

“At first, I didn’t have a lot of Karli’s things, and I thought that would be OK,” Sawyer said. “The more I thought about it, the more it started to mean to me.”

The idea to hunt down the tile came from Cole’s father, Duane Carson, who said it was the first thing that popped into his mind when he read that Nordstrom was closing.

“It was like finding a little arrow that we all forgot about,” he said. “I hadn’t been in Nordstrom in about 10 years, but I remember exactly how that tile looked. I drew a picture for the mall manager.”

Carson said he didn’t know how to get the tile back and started thinking of the ways he could get it to Sawyer, even going as far as envisioning himself and a friend breaking into the store and chiseling it out themselves. He didn’t go that far, however. Instead, he contacted the mall manager. He also called Sawyer to see if she had a plan to get it back.

“I was a little bit angry at myself for not coming up with the idea,” Sawyer said. “We had been trying to get things from her from where she lived, but I hadn’t thought about this.”

Sawyer and Carson both made calls to the mall and Nordstrom, and while they weren’t turned away, things didn’t really get moving until Karli Cole’s older sister, Krissi Carson, got involved. She posted about the tile on Facebook, and a friend suggested contacting the company through Twitter. On Jan. 20, she sent Nordstrom a tweet alerting them to the situation and received a response seven minutes later asking for contact information. She gave her mother’s phone number, and Sawyer was put in touch with the former store manager. Krissy Carson said she doesn’t know who from Nordstrom saw her tweet, but she’s happy the tile is with her family.

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “It’s hard when you see something like that, but that’s all we get now, those objects. It’s harder if you don’t get them.”

Two days after Carson’s tweet, Sawyer’s husband, Noel Sawyer, went to the store and picked up the tile while Lonnelle waited anxiously to get off from work. When Sawyer got home, it was the first time she had seen the tile in at least six years, she said. She didn’t know what to do.

She looked at the tile. She held it. She cried.

Sawyer isn’t sure what’s next for the tile. Most likely, she’s going to frame it and display it in her house. But there is one thing she’s positive about.

“I’m not going to let go of it. I’m still holding onto it,” she said a day after getting it back. “I held onto it for a very long time last night, and I just had to put it in my bag and take it to work with me. I’m very proud of it. Until we get a frame for it, I’m going to keep it with me at all times.”


Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.

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Columbian Staff Writer