About

My name is Sonia Di Minco and I am the owner and founder of Anchored Signs. I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you so much for visiting my Instagram and Facebook pages, for all the likes, and for following Anchored Signs! Every business has a story, and Anchored Signs is no exception. Anchored Signs has been a labour of love and an instrument of hope. No matter what your struggle is, may the story of its beginnings give you as much hope as it has me.

MY STORY

I am a proud and loving mother of three incredible boys, and wife to my soul mate and the best husband ever, Sandro. Life was amazing until just after my third son was born and I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (UC).

I suffered for three years with UC, resulting in hundreds of hospital visits and admissions for weeks at a time. On one fateful visit, I was partially paralyzed from neck to toes and was thought to be suffering a stroke. They called “code blue” on me because of the severity of my symptoms.

My health remained weak and fragile. I was on 22 pills a day when doctors suggested a last resort treatment; at $5,500 per dose, these four-hour-long infusions were not covered by OHIP. Initially, I had three doses but nothing seemed to work. Finally, as I lay in hospital on my death bed, the doctors, hoping to jumpstart my system, administered a double dose. They were hopeful because Remicade has a 90% success rate, but in fact, I was getting worse. The surgeon had come to talk to my family one morning to schedule emergency surgery for midnight that same day, assuming my blood work checked out. When my blood work came back, the surgeon let us know that we didn’t have until midnight. Her words were chilling: “If we don’t get you in that operating room, you will kiss everyone goodbye because you are not going to make it.”

The pictures you see you are from Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC)! They sent cards and letters to 10,000 people across Canada to share my story! I started making metal roses and all the proceeds went to them. I raised $5,000 for them.

Slowly but surely, I was recovering, but I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was on my knees begging The Lord, as a lost sheep, to show me the way and to be my Shepherd. Shortly after that, we were at a friend’s house for dinner and he had a sign on his wall. I commented on how beautiful it was and told him I wanted to make one for myself. He asked me how I was going to do it and I told him that I was very crafty and could do it, so he asked me to make something for him. When I brought him his finished sign, he said, “Sonia, you need to make these…people will love them.” And so Anchored Signs was created, inspired by Hebrews 6:19, “Hope is an anchor for the soul!”

Today I create signs for people and make their visions come true and it gives me the greatest pleasure to see smiles on my customers’ faces when they pick up their signs!

God gives the toughest battles to his strongest soldiers! At what appeared to be the hardest, most painful and excruciating time of my life, I was being refined by God. When I thought I couldn’t do it anymore, He showed me that I am strong and there is always a rainbow after it rains…you just have to look for it!