The owners of Skyway Creations, Don Jr. and Lori Goede, have spent most of their lives helping generations of Colorado Springs customers express sentiments that feel too big for language alone.

I love you.

I’m sorry.

Goodbye.

“Any feelings or message you want to say, flowers can do that in a way that … really nothing else can,” Lori said.

So, what bouquet bids the best adieu to a couple of retiring florists, after a singular and storied half-century-plus in the sun?

“We had a design called the Duke’s Mixture, and it’s one of the most glorious retirement bouquets I could think of,” said Lori, describing an array that featured one of every flower the shop had in stock. “That would be what I would choose.”

By the time Skyway pulls up roots at its longtime South 8th Street address in roughly a month, the clearance sales hopefully will have done their job. The garden art and supplies, indoor potted plants, as well as all the cut flowers and even the tall bank of glass-doored refrigerators that kept them fresh, will be gone.

The Goedes don’t need a retirement bouquet. When Don Jr. and Lori say “it’s the thought that counts,” that’s exactly what they mean. Blossoms wither, but memories — and memorable moments — abide.

“Flowers can both create and extend those magic moments,” Lori said. “And we all need more of those, right?”

Plants weren’t Don Jr.’s original calling, until he was forced to stop and truly smell the roses.

Don Jr.’s dreams of a career on the airwaves were undiminished after he dropped out of radio school in the late 1960s, but the realities of the Springs job market, with no full-time radio work to be found, forced him firmly back to earth.

His mother’s hand played a part in that early career cultivation, as well, after she saw a help wanted ad for a flower shop delivery driver.

“She said, ‘You go down there and you apply for that job right now, until you find better work,” recalled Don Jr., then a hippie with “hair down to here” – and a young son, Don Goede III, at home to provide for.

In 1968, Don Jr. signed on for what he thought would be a temporary gig delivering for Scotty’s Flowers and Gifts in the old Skyway Plaza Shopping Center, off Arcturus Drive.

“And I just loved it — peace, love and flowers, you know,” he said.

Soon enough, he was branching out to other duties at the shop, eventually taking over the plant side of the business, selling flowers and even helping some of the customers care for plants in their homes.

“They’d go on vacation, I’d go up and take care of their plants. I thought, ‘Well, this green plant maintenance business could be something,’” he said. “I just locked into the plants, everything about plants.”

The Goede family purchased Scotty’s Floral Shop in Dec. 1970, an investment led by Don Sr. but paid for in large part by leftover money in the college fund of Don Jr., who was tapped to head up the new family business.

“They bought it for $20,000, and it was grossing $80,000,” said Don. Jr., of a business that got a new name and eventually a new address, in a nearby copse of adjoined storefronts at 1407 S. 8th St. When Don Sr. retired from the Air Force, he joined his wife and namesake son at Skyway.

“Dad was in procurement with the Air Force, so he knew sales. He was a ‘til they buy or die’ kind of salesman, and he got out and started making sales, Don Jr. said.

Skyway began to soar.

“We opened up retail fridges in the five hospitals in the Springs, at Peak Field, Fort Carson, two at the Air Force Academy, and we actually had four smaller satellite stores,” said Don Jr., whose company’s countless credentials include interior landscaping features for the Colorado Springs Airport, installations and flowers at hotels, including the Four Seasons, and a 50-year engagement as the official florist for the Air Force Academy’s lavish graduation ceremony.

“Corsages for the cadets and their dates, and big flower arrangements for the banquet tables,” Don Jr. said. “Over the years … we did it all.”

By the mid-1970s, the flower shop had gained a new employee — and family member.

Skyway Creations and Greenery was still Skyway Flower Shop when Lori walked in for the first time in search of an African violet for her mother’s birthday. She made an impression on the recently divorced flower shop owner, to say the least.

“Don remembered what I was wearing … a knit green shirt and matching vest,” Lori said.

Friendship soon turned more serious, moving in the leaps and bounds of young love. Leave it to a florist to craft a charm campaign that makes you go weak in the knees.

“I also was a dental assistant in the daytime and he sent me flowers there,” Lori said.

Ahead of the Christmas holidays, he sent a gift each day for 12 days.

“Then … a small Norfolk Island pine Christmas tree, all decorated with the sweetest, tiniest ornaments with a small angel on top,” Lori said.

Next, came the ring, and Lori’s resounding “Yes.”

“I can’t believe how lucky I was to find Don, but not only that, to fall into the best and most joyful career of a lifetime,” Lori said, sniffing back tears.

Retirement is calling. Lori is 69, and Don Jr. 76. As much as they love the work, the rest of their lives won’t last forever. Long drives in the convertible aren’t going to take themselves. An accomplished artist, Lori is looking forward to the extra hours she will have to spend, paintbrush in hand.

“Being excited about retirement doesn’t mean we’re not really sad,” said Lori, adding that while she and Don Jr. sold the building, they’re hanging on to the Skyway Creations name. “It’s too much a part of our family to let it go … even if nobody in the family ever ends up using it again.”

Some good things get to last a very long time, but even the longest of magic moments must end. Skyway’s final day of business is Oct. 1.

December 2025 would have marked 55 years of business.

Fifty-five years of celebrations and memorials, baby showers and proms, graduations, weddings, and retirements … all the feels, and the bookends.

“When I was much younger we were doing a lot of flower orders coming for funerals,” Lori said. “It used to upset me so much, because someone who loved that person is ordering their last flowers. … It just choked me up.”

Later, after having personally experienced the death of a loved one, she realized she’d gotten it wrong. Or, rather, she’d overcomplicated the point.

Whether it’s the first gift, or the last, or every day just because, giving flowers, getting flowers, creating bouquets at a shop off 8th Street in Colorado Springs …

“It’s all about love,” Lori said.

The owners of Skyway Creations, Don Jr. and Lori Goede, have spent most of their lives helping generations of Colorado Springs customers express sentiments that feel too big for language alone.

I love you.

I’m sorry.

Goodbye.

“Any feelings or message you want to say, flowers can do that in a way that … really nothing else can,” Lori said.

So, what bouquet bids the best adieu to a couple of retiring florists, after a singular and storied half-century-plus in the sun?

“We had a design called the Duke’s Mixture, and it’s one of the most glorious retirement bouquets I could think of,” said Lori, describing an array that featured one of every flower the shop had in stock. “That would be what I would choose.”

By the time Skyway pulls up roots at its longtime South 8th Street address in roughly a month, the clearance sales hopefully will have done their job. The garden art and supplies, indoor potted plants, as well as all the cut flowers and even the tall bank of glass-doored refrigerators that kept them fresh, will be gone.

The Goedes don’t need a retirement bouquet. When Don Jr. and Lori say “it’s the thought that counts,” that’s exactly what they mean. Blossoms wither, but memories — and memorable moments — abide.

“Flowers can both create and extend those magic moments,” Lori said. “And we all need more of those, right?”

Plants weren’t Don Jr.’s original calling, until he was forced to stop and truly smell the roses.

Don Jr.’s dreams of a career on the airwaves were undiminished after he dropped out of radio school in the late 1960s, but the realities of the Springs job market, with no full-time radio work to be found, forced him firmly back to earth.

His mother’s hand played a part in that early career cultivation, as well, after she saw a help wanted ad for a flower shop delivery driver.

“She said, ‘You go down there and you apply for that job right now, until you find better work,” recalled Don Jr., then a hippie with “hair down to here” – and a young son, Don Goede III, at home to provide for.

In 1968, Don Jr. signed on for what he thought would be a temporary gig delivering for Scotty’s Flowers and Gifts in the old Skyway Plaza Shopping Center, off Arcturus Drive.

“And I just loved it — peace, love and flowers, you know,” he said.

Soon enough, he was branching out to other duties at the shop, eventually taking over the plant side of the business, selling flowers and even helping some of the customers care for plants in their homes.

“They’d go on vacation, I’d go up and take care of their plants. I thought, ‘Well, this green plant maintenance business could be something,’” he said. “I just locked into the plants, everything about plants.”

The Goede family purchased Scotty’s Floral Shop in Dec. 1970, an investment led by Don Sr. but paid for in large part by leftover money in the college fund of Don Jr., who was tapped to head up the new family business.

“They bought it for $20,000, and it was grossing $80,000,” said Don. Jr., of a business that got a new name and eventually a new address, in a nearby copse of adjoined storefronts at 1407 S. 8th St. When Don Sr. retired from the Air Force, he joined his wife and namesake son at Skyway.

“Dad was in procurement with the Air Force, so he knew sales. He was a ‘til they buy or die’ kind of salesman, and he got out and started making sales, Don Jr. said.

Skyway began to soar.

“We opened up retail fridges in the five hospitals in the Springs, at Peak Field, Fort Carson, two at the Air Force Academy, and we actually had four smaller satellite stores,” said Don Jr., whose company’s countless credentials include interior landscaping features for the Colorado Springs Airport, installations and flowers at hotels, including the Four Seasons, and a 50-year engagement as the official florist for the Air Force Academy’s lavish graduation ceremony.

“Corsages for the cadets and their dates, and big flower arrangements for the banquet tables,” Don Jr. said. “Over the years … we did it all.”

By the mid-1970s, the flower shop had gained a new employee — and family member.

Skyway Creations and Greenery was still Skyway Flower Shop when Lori walked in for the first time in search of an African violet for her mother’s birthday. She made an impression on the recently divorced flower shop owner, to say the least.

“Don remembered what I was wearing … a knit green shirt and matching vest,” Lori said.

Friendship soon turned more serious, moving in the leaps and bounds of young love. Leave it to a florist to craft a charm campaign that makes you go weak in the knees.

“I also was a dental assistant in the daytime and he sent me flowers there,” Lori said.

Ahead of the Christmas holidays, he sent a gift each day for 12 days.

“Then … a small Norfolk Island pine Christmas tree, all decorated with the sweetest, tiniest ornaments with a small angel on top,” Lori said.

Next, came the ring, and Lori’s resounding “Yes.”

“I can’t believe how lucky I was to find Don, but not only that, to fall into the best and most joyful career of a lifetime,” Lori said, sniffing back tears.

Retirement is calling. Lori is 69, and Don Jr. 76. As much as they love the work, the rest of their lives won’t last forever. Long drives in the convertible aren’t going to take themselves. An accomplished artist, Lori is looking forward to the extra hours she will have to spend, paintbrush in hand.

“Being excited about retirement doesn’t mean we’re not really sad,” said Lori, adding that while she and Don Jr. sold the building, they’re hanging on to the Skyway Creations name. “It’s too much a part of our family to let it go … even if nobody in the family ever ends up using it again.”

Some good things get to last a very long time, but even the longest of magic moments must end. Skyway’s final day of business is Oct. 1.

December 2025 would have marked 55 years of business.

Fifty-five years of celebrations and memorials, baby showers and proms, graduations, weddings, and retirements … all the feels, and the bookends.

“When I was much younger we were doing a lot of flower orders coming for funerals,” Lori said. “It used to upset me so much, because someone who loved that person is ordering their last flowers. … It just choked me up.”

Later, after having personally experienced the death of a loved one, she realized she’d gotten it wrong. Or, rather, she’d overcomplicated the point.

Whether it’s the first gift, or the last, or every day just because, giving flowers, getting flowers, creating bouquets at a shop off 8th Street in Colorado Springs …

“It’s all about love,” Lori said.