Memories in the Milkweed: How One Father Saves Monarchs While Maintaining His Daughter’s Legacy

We caught up with comic Frank O'Donnell as he prepares to share thousands more milkweed seeds with strangers across the globe.

Common milkweed seeds are built to travel, with hopeful white wisps carrying them on fall breezes to fertile ground. But Frank O’Donnell never expected his seeds would make it all the way to the Philippines. Back in 2010, after his fifteen-year-old daughter, Keri, died in a car accident, O’Donnell had a comforting encounter with a monarch. Friends encouraged him to plant butterfly bushes in her honor. A garden grew from it in North Providence and, when the family moved, in Jamestown. As O’Donnell began courting monarchs, he learned they only lay eggs on common milkweed. So he planted some and harvested their bountiful pods, offering extras to friends. “I didn’t want to throw away the seeds, because why waste them,” he says. Word, like the seeds, caught wind this spring and O’Donnell’s efforts were covered by the Boston Globe, NBC, even South Korea radio. Since then, thousands from all over the world have reached out for seeds. O’Donnell, who now raises monarch caterpillars, says some want to help save the monarch population, which is dwindling. But many more request seeds to plant in his daughter’s memory. “This is definitely driven by Keri, because she was my ‘look at me’ kid. She always wanted her name in lights, and she has gone way beyond that,” he says. “At times, it’s difficult, because this is all happening because our daughter is gone. But we were not given a choice in that. So we have to do something to honor her.” To request seeds, email frankodonnellcomedy@gmail.com.