GETTING BACK TO BASICS

I AM MARQUETTE

Entrepreneurial spirit, paired with a little faith, turned a solution to a health challenge into a successful business.

BY ELLIE (HAWKINSON) O’BRIEN, ENG ’12, AS

*TOLD TO TRACY

STAEDTER

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2016, I stopped eating foods with gluten, including my favorite — granola. I couldn’t find a grain-free variety that wasn’t a sugar bomb. So, I made my own. My husband, Pat, Bus Ad ’11, and I grew it into a business and by late 2018, we were in Whole Foods Market stores in Chicago. We also started talking about having a baby.

But we were working nights and weekends on top of our full-time jobs, and I felt super stressed.

Around that time, tiny purple dots appeared all over my body. I felt normal, but we went to the emergency room. I had a serious case of idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura. My blood couldn’t clot properly and was leaking out of my vessels. I could have bled to death. Doctors also said I needed to manage my stress and be off all medication for six months before getting pregnant. It was disheartening.

Pat and I have faced many challenges. I have two other autoimmune diseases. And we have family members with serious health issues, including my dad who passed away from brain cancer. When problems arise, we just figure it out.

In hindsight, 2019 was transformative. I went down to part-time work, and Pat quit his full-time job to manage our business. We rebranded it as Square Root (squarerootlife.com), which evokes the idea of getting back to basics. Today, we’re in 150 stores, including Festival Foods in Wisconsin. Best of all, I’m off medication, and we welcomed our son, Ronan, into the world in November 2020.