Sarah-Mai Miller and Heath Miller lived in 10 different houses and apartments in 17 years. The couple owned three of those houses — an 1800s saltbox in Greenport on Long Island and a modern cozy cabin and a glass cabin, both in a town called Milan in upstate New York.
The couple’s ventures in real estate were a natural extension of their jobs as creative directors. Together, they founded Chalk 242, a creative ad agency they’d named after the address of their first apartment in New York City, a prewar building on the Upper West Side. For the Millers, the lines blurred between work, play and home.
The two houses in Milan were nicknamed Maitopia and Mailan, a nod to Ms. Miller’s name. But they bore her husband’s out-of-the-box touches, like a lap pool within two steps of the backdoor of Maitopia, and, most curious to Ms. Miller, a bathtub in the middle of the tiny home. “I saw the designs for the tub and was like, ‘Really?’” she recalled.
In February 2023, Mr. Miller, 47, died in a head-on collision on a rural, dark road on the North Fork a few miles from their Greenport home. Mr. Miller was driving. His friend who was in the passenger’s seat, and the two occupants of the other car died.
Mr. Miller’s death left his wife stricken with grief, reliving every memory of what they had built together. The night Heath died, Sarah-Mai called her parents, who drove through the night to be with their daughter. Other friends and family members offered their support and presence in the coming days and weeks. Ms. Miller eventually went back “home” to her native Ohio after the informal celebration of Heath’s life in his hometown, York, Pa., where some of his family still lives. She returned to the saltbox-style home in Greenport weeks later to see if she could be there alone. She had a little company, Rufus, their dog. “It was so empty,” she said. “Every day was a reminder of how quiet it was.”
She lasted four days. It was time to let go, she thought. She listed the home. And then she listed Mailan, the ‘cozy-modern glass house’ upstate. And then she and her husband’s business partner, Max King, decided to sell Rest Co., a boutique hotel that her husband helped create out of a chicken coop. Piece by piece, Ms. Miller has spent a year shedding much of the property that they bought and renovated so she can pick up the pieces.
“I don’t think grief ends,” Sarah-Mai said. “But it changes.”
Doing What They Loved
The Millers met when they worked at the Columbus, Ohio, headquarters of Express, the clothing retailer. Mr. Miller’s job was running the creative direction for the brand, which included working with models and stylists for photo shoots, while Ms. Miller was hired as an internet coordinator, a novel title at the time that included dressing mannequins.
Mr. Miller had helped interview his future wife for her job and wanted to pass on her for a more experienced candidate. Ultimately, the person in charge of Customer Relationship Management overruled him.
Two months later, they began dating, Ms. Miller said, recalling how Mr. Miller’s nattiness was a bit intimidating. “I grew up in small-town Ohio where there’s no such thing as fashion,” she said. “Heath was stylish. He cared about his appearance.”
That carried over to the décor of his apartment. The first time Ms. Miller visited, he apologized for the “mess,” she recalled, laughing. “It was the cleanest and nicest apartment I’ve ever seen.”
Less than a year later, the couple moved to New York. Their first apartment in the city was on 242 West 104th Street, which they renovated shortly after buying it, applying a mix of modern aesthetics with old-school New York grace, plus a dash of industrial.
They got married in Turks and Caicos in June 2008, which happened to have been their first vacation spot together more than a year earlier. Heath’s son, McKenzie, who was 12 at the time and from Heath’s previous marriage, was also in attendance. They’d return to Turks and Caicos many times after their wedding, staying at the same hotel and going to their favorite beaches.
New York was a cultural initiation. In addition to trying out as many new restaurants as they could, they loved frequenting museums and art exhibitions, where they sought inspiration for their jobs. This inspiration would eventually spill into many areas of their lives — home décor, wardrobe and the business they were planning.
By this time in their careers, having grown weary of corporate power and the way stakeholders sometimes dilute creativity, the newlyweds talked a lot about doing work that they both loved as opposed to work they thought they needed to do. “A good idea is going to be polarizing,’” Sarah-Mai recalled Heath…
Read More: They Built Three Homes Together. Now She Must Do It Alone.