Grieving loved ones of Ethan Chapin, one of the four University of Idaho students murdered late last year, are making sure the memory of his “one of a kind” smile can keep on growing.
A Tulip farm where the 20-year-old murder victim used to work has created a special mix of bulbs for yellow-and-white flowers called “Ethan’s Smile” to raise money for a foundation set up by his parents.
“It’s Ethan smiling on us,” the slain student’s mother, Stacy Chapin, told the “Today” show in her and her husband’s first interviews nearly five months after their son was stabbed to death alongside his girlfriend and two of her housemates.
“It’s just turned into something so special — something tangible that represents him now,” she also told ABC News while viewing the flowers at Tulip Valley Farms in Mt. Vernon, Washington.
The mom said it was her son’s friends at the farm, where he worked last summer, that felt inspired to honor their slain pal.
“Ethan was the kid that the rest of the kids would call and find out when he was on the work schedule because everybody wanted to work with Ethan,” she told “Today.”
“When [the murder] happened, the kids decided they needed a way to honor him.”
One farm worker, Reese Gardner, described himself as “one of the lucky kids who got to work” with Chapin.
“He had the best smile — you couldn’t see it and not instantly smile back,” he told the NBC show.
Tulip Valley CEO Andrew Miller said it was the perfect tribute because “Tulips are iconic for Skagit Valley and a smile is iconic for Ethan.”
“I will remember Ethan standing in the tulip fields with a big smile surrounded by people that know and love him,” he said.
More than 80,000 “Ethan’s Smile” bulb sets have already been sold, with proceeds going to a foundation Chapin’s parents founded to provide scholarships for students to go to the University of Idaho, where he was studying when he was tragically killed.
“We have created something that is good that Ethan would love,” she told ABC News.
Ethan’s dad, Jim Chapin, fought back tears as he recalled his son and his smile as being “one of a kind.”
“It’s tough — it’s tough not having him here,” he told ABC, admitting he regularly wakes to “cry in [his] coffee.”
Stacy Chapin said that the foundation would help continue their son’s legacy of “touching people’s lives.”
“We say in our family, if we touch as many lives as he did in his 20 years, this world would be a better place. He was an amazing kid,” she said.
The grieving parents are unable to talk about the case after a judge enforced a strict gag order after criminology student Bryan Kohberger, 28, was charged with the four murders.
However, they talked about how hard the loss has been, especially as Ethan was a triplet who did almost everything with his sister, Maizie, and brother, Hunter.
All three attended the University of Idaho and had been together shortly before Ethan Chapin went to see girlfriend Xana Kernodle in the off-campus Moscow home where they were stabbed to death alongside Kernodle’s roommates Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen on Nov. 13.
The parents now have to prepare for major landmark occasions with them but without Ethan, starting with their 21st birthday later this year.
“I’d give anything to just be able to hug him one more,” his mom said.
The at-time overwhelmed dad told parents to “make sure you always hug your kid” because “you think stuff like that never happens.”
“You think it happens to other people,” his wife agreed.
“I’m telling you — if it happens to us, it can happen to anybody,” she said.