leesah marie noon
Leesah Marie Noon is the creator of Caring Cardinals® as well as the author and photographer of Caring Cardinals: Nature’s Gift for Inner Peace, Caring Cardinals: A Cardinal Christmas and four seasonal photo gift books featuring beautiful cardinal photographs. Caring Cardinals® and Leesah share the same purpose, which is to inspire the bereaved to discover inner peace through the spiritual symbolism of red cardinals. These magnificent creatures are embraced by countless individuals as spiritual messengers sent by our loved ones in Heaven.
In early 2012, Leesah experienced a rather lengthy period of grieving after the sudden loss of a dear friend. Attempting to comfort his family, Leesah drew his portrait as a gift, but their grief prevented them from displaying it. This left Leesah was silently determined to discover a new way for comforting the bereaved. Several months later, she was blessed with a Cardinal Experience in Florida and felt an immediate sense of inner peace. Upon returning home, she was visited by yet another red cardinal. These two events were the inspiration behind her vision which led to CARING CARDINALS®, with a purpose of offering hope, love, and inspiration for adults and children who have suffered a loss.
During the next two years, Leesah purchased a camera and started to capture cardinal photographs near her home every day, while also writing her memorial gift book Caring Cardinals: Nature's Gift for Inner Peace. Before the book was published, Leesah was hit hard with the unexpected passing of her own father. Within a week's time, a bright red cardinal began to visit her home every morning. Leesah felt her father's spirit nearby, which provided her the strength needed to persevere in ways she never imagined were possible.
A few months later, Leesah’s memorial gift book Caring Cardinals: Nature's Gift for Inner Peace was published. In addition, Leesah developed several cardinal memorial gifts, launched several social media Pages, and designed/launched an inspirational, cardinal-themed website for the bereaved.
The CARING CARDINALS® website is a truly comforting place to visit 365 days a year, as it is updated frequently with new seasonal cardinal photography, which is paired alongside inspirational poetry, quotes, real-life stories and more. There is also a MEMORIALS Page in which you can honor the memory of your loved ones in Heaven.
Leesah feels so blessed for the opportunity to provide daily comfort and inspiration on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Thousands of people from all over the world follow CARING CARDINALS® with their hearts for daily inspiration through Leesah’s cardinal photography, uplifting quotes, heartfelt poetry, real-life stories and more! Music is a beautiful source for comfort after a loss, so Leesah recently began sharing Reels on social media, which feature her cardinal photography paired with beautiful songs about love and loss. Only seven Reels have been shared so far and already they have been viewed over 3.5 million times.
In 2020, Leesah joined creative forces with Artist Jim Shore where together they create beautiful “Caring Cardinal” memorial figurines and ornaments. Each cardinal is paired with a Sentiment Card featuring a heartwarming poem written by Leesah. Jim and Leesah have developed several Caring Cardinal memorial gifts, each having appeared on QVC. The spiritual symbolism of cardinals is embraced by so many that the Caring Cardinals sold out within minutes during every show. In 2022, Leesah launched an independent line of beautiful cardinal gifts with Enesco, the world largest gift distributor. With over 8,000 retailers in the US alone, beautiful gifts by CARING CARDINALS® began flying into homes throughout the US and Canada. Needless to say Leesah’s beautiful vision has evolved significantly, and she is now comforting the world, one heart at a time.
Leesah finds it difficult to believe she has been coloring the world around her for over 50 years! She and her three siblings were raised by their parents, Richard and Barbara Noon in Southeastern Michigan. By age two, Leesah's father discovered her artistic talent in their home on walls, furniture and occasionally her sister’s legs. By age three, she attended her first art class at a community college; the only child in an all-adult classroom. Throughout her childhood, Leesah received many awards and prizes for her illustrations. By age 18, she was creating penciled portraits admired by others such as Lou Holtz and Sports Illustrated®. Several of Leesah's portraits were published and received awards, one of which was honored and displayed in the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. After attending college, Leesah served valuable roles in Marketing, Operations, Administration and Human Resources for a major pizza corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Almost 13 years later, she was recruited by another major pizza franchise located in Birmingham, Alabama. For the next several years, Leesah developed their marketing department and provided direct support to the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Leesah currently lives with her family in a suburb outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She enjoys creative writing, drawing, capturing photographs, training her Goldendoodle Karma and spending time with her sons. Photography keeps Leesah quite fulfilled, but admits she often gazes at her collection of pencil portraits of Paul McCartney, John Mayer, Lou Holtz, Tom Monahan, Jim Shore and others while wondering who might land on her drawing board next!