Dearest Charlotte,
Today we light our candles for you again. April 7th, your day, Charlotte Figi Day, arrives each year as a reminder of what one small, mighty life can set into motion. We wish, as we always do, that we could simply have you here. But because we cannot, we do what you taught us to do: we keep going. We carry you forward.
You were born on October 18, 2006, and from your very first moments, you fought with a fierceness the world was not prepared for. Seizures came at three months old, lasting hours. Drug after drug was tried and failed. Your parents, Paige and Matt, refused to stop searching. And then, at five years old, something changed. Your first dose of CBD oil, and you got better. Quietly. Without a word. You simply got better. And in that silence, a movement was born.
Families packed their lives into cars and trucks and moved to Colorado, drawn by your story and the hope of the same relief you had found. Legislators took notice. The Charlotte’s Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014 was introduced in your name. Federal hemp legalization followed. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, your friend, said it best: “Charlotte Figi was more than an individual; she was an entire movement wrapped up into a sweet girl with a big smile and an even bigger heart.” You were known as the girl “who changed marijuana laws across America.” And you did it without saying a single word.
Charlotte, your name means free. And that is exactly what you gave to the world: freedom. Freedom from suffering, from stigma, from the idea that patients had no choice but to accept whatever conventional medicine offered, even when it was failing them. You showed us that a plant, long dismissed and misunderstood, could be meaningful medicine for so many. You helped reclaim that truth for patients and families everywhere.
Millions Still Depend on This
There are millions of people in this country, children with epilepsy, adults managing chronic pain, veterans carrying invisible wounds, seniors seeking an alternative to opioids, for whom cannabinoid therapy is not a political debate. It is their quality of life. It is their ability to sleep, to eat, to leave the house, to be present with their families. For them, access is not a privilege. It is a necessity.
When policies shift without warning, when the hemp products a mother has used for years to manage her child’s seizures could vanish from shelves because of a legal redefinition buried in a spending bill, that is not an abstraction. That is a family in crisis. That is a patient left behind. And it is precisely the kind of harm that Charlotte’s story was always fighting against.
Charlotte, you taught us that no family should have to fight this hard simply to access medicine that works. You taught us that sovereignty over our own health, the dignity of choice, is a human right. The contradictions of this moment remind us that without sustained advocacy, without rigorous research, without education and community, those rights can be quietly taken away.
You Are Still Our North Star
Today, as every April 7th, Realm of Caring is guided by you, our North Star. The candle you lit has not gone out. It lives in every family we have guided through their plant-based health journey. It lives in the research we continue to support and expand. It lives in the quiet, everyday moments when someone finds relief, regains stability, or simply feels like themselves again.
It also lives in the responsibility we carry forward. Because while so much has changed, families are still navigating uncertainty around access, around quality, and around whether the products they rely on will remain available to them. And so we continue: educating, advocating, and standing alongside those who cannot afford to wait.
For those who feel called to take action in Charlotte’s honor, we invite you to raise your voice in support of hemp access and patient protections through our Save Hemp webpage. It is one small but meaningful way to ensure that the path Charlotte helped illuminate remains open for others.
As we look ahead, our mission remains clear. We will continue to build the research, strengthen the community, and elevate the patient voice so that no one is left behind in their pursuit of care.
Charlotte, in the words of the Buddha: “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.” You lit the first candle. We are the thousands.
We love you, Charlotte. We will not let your light go out.
Lovingly and in your service,
Your Realm of Caring Family
