“They just don’t make ’em like that anymore.”
Annette Robertson recalled her mom fondly. “She worked hard her whole life, never lied to a fault, and never stole,” said Robertson. “And, she was very stern — there was definitely a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong,’ and she told you exactly what she was thinking.”
Lucy Fern Estep, known as Grandma Fern to her family, moved to Miami when she was 4 years old and the Kendall area was just a dirt road. She grew up farming the land and nurtured a passion for plants that she passed onto her daughter Annette. Robertson cultivated that seed into a full-blown botanical masterpiece in Islamorada — the newly-renovated Islander Resort.
“Mom always had an answer, and it was just hard work,” said Robertson. If life got hard, she worked harder, her daughter recalled.
Robertson picked up her mom’s tireless work ethic and her green thumb.
“She loved anything she could take a cutting off of and make grow,” Robertson said of her mom. “Gardening is a hobby you can have without a lot of money but that produces a lot of gratification, so we gardened a lot. I went outside, learned to work hard and propagate and fell in love with it.”
Even though the original Fern was the manager at the plant nursery, she worked and got dirty with her employees, which included a young Robertson.
“I did the same thing when we had to renovate the Islander,” said Robertson, “and my guys were so loyal and took real pride in the fact that we were rebuilding the Islander together. It’s the only way we got this done.”
After Hurricane Irma devastated the resort in 2017, Robertson was on the property six to seven days a week, 10-plus hours a day. She’d get off her tractors and help her guys load plants and soil, just like her mom had decades before. She’d also share her daily progress with her mom, who by then was battling stage four cancer with her same staunch resolve.
“She’d come down, and I’d drive her around on the golf cart to see what we were doing,” said Robertson. “She was amazed.”
The two-year project gave the iconic Keys property a green “rebirth,” adding reclaimed rainwater irrigation for the gardens, the second-largest solar panel array in Florida, sterilized cold-water laundry systems and native plants to attract birds, bees and butterflies.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you better. My mom taught me that,” said Robertson. “If it weren’t for Irma, the Islander wouldn’t have been reborn.”
“My favorite part of the renovation was watching the love and time my mom dedicated to every single detail — from the landscaping to the color choices in the rooms,” said Sky Moore, Robertson’s daughter. “She cares, and you can tell the project was done with love.”
Moore owns and operates Islander Girl Snorkel & Tours on the Islander Property. She goes to work every day alongside her mom, Robertson, and is reminded of how hard the latter worked to make the Islander one of a kind.
“My mom made my grandmother so proud with her Islander project,” Moore said. “My grandmother Fern was a strong German woman that loved her children and grandchildren more than anything. I see both her and my mom in me; my everyday work ethic and passion for doing what I love comes from them.”
After Estep lost her cancer battle in March 2019, Robertson dedicated a special part of the property to her — a specially-curated butterfly garden named after Fern herself.
Robertson started the project as a cool exploratory area for kids — complete with butterfly releases, touch-friendly plants with bright colors and interesting textures and a pop-up activity tent. She finished it with a heartfelt dedication to her role model.
“When you create something, you give it a purpose,” said Robertson. “This is Fern’s Butterfly Garden. It’s next to the splash pad, so kids are always playing nearby. She loved birds, butterflies, blooming plants and children, so now she’s there.”
Robertson named the blooming nook after grandma Fern because it was the only part of the renovation she didn’t get to see. They held her celebration of life there, releasing 55 butterflies in her honor.
Moore called the garden “the most special place to visit on the property,” and is sure her grandma would have loved it.
Robertson said, “If she were here, she would just sit there and listen to the water trickle and the butterflies. Part of her is under the slash pine. It’s classic Florida — it’s strong, and it bends but never breaks. That was my mom.”
