Forget Me Not Antiques

The little store that could

Photo by Samuel Ramos on Unsplash

A dusty antique mall in my sister’s small, Midwest town in Southern Oklahoma was struggling. I heard about this store from my sister. I know she visited it many times because she loved antiques. She became interested enough to put a few of her antiques in the store on consignment. She did well. Soon she rented a booth space and became a vendor.

At age seventy-three, her oil company job had booted her out after forty-nine years, and she’d retired. Well, no, she never really did because she was a woman constantly on the go. Tiny but mighty, she was always busy. She began trading her booth rent at the antique mall for her labor, working at the store twice a week. She loved being there!

The owner had two locations and was stretched thin keeping both going. She offered the store to my sister for a very reasonable price. I remember her calling me and saying, “What do you think?” She told me the price, and if she failed it was a survivable amount. Knowing her, I knew she would not fail. I said, “Go for it!”

And, she did. That little struggling store became her passion. She weeded out the vendors not caring for their booth space, and soon had a waiting list for vendors wanting to be in the store. The shopping area was starting to look nice! Customers began visiting frequently because the merchandise was moving out and replaced daily with new items. A local buzz was created and she had a great location.

She started an outside flea market on the last weekend of every month. More vendors brought a variety of antiques, fresh produce, crafts, and everything you can name that might show up at a flea market. She kept her store percentage low for the vendors, and kept her booth rent reasonable so that they could “make the rent” plus a little more as long as they cared for their booth carefully, and kept it clean, interesting, and fresh.

I live eight hundred miles away, a twelve-hour drive. Still, I visited for a week about every four months and I loved watching her at work. Customers were greeted warmly and this little white-haired dynamo knew her antiques! Since she now attracted the best vendors in the area, her store had quality antiques as well as affordable “grandma’s attic” items. Lots and lots of fun stuff! Nostalgia!

I also loved her sales software! Vendors got an email every time they sold a piece, so they knew when they needed to come and revamp their booth and bring new items to offer up for sale. Daily sales totals increased monthly. By her thirteenth month, she had her best sales total month ever! Her store was named the best Antique Store in the County.

Tragically, during her fourteenth month, she was struck by a pickup truck in her parking lot. It was the end of the weekend flea market day. She had done well. She was happy. She loved her store, her vendors, and the friends she had made while being a shopkeeper.

She died two weeks later, after a very difficult hospital stay. Her head injury finally overtook her and was unrecoverable. She had just had her seventy-fifth birthday.

Now the little store that could is for sale. If a buyer isn’t found soon the store will be closed and shuttered. But at least my sister had the store for a while and had the joy of watching it grow and prosper and improve. At seventy-five, she’d had a new career that she loved.

It is never too late to begin a new chapter in the book of your life story. Go for it. Stay busy. Find your passion. When one door closes, don’t just wait for another one to open for you. Find one and open it! She did. And, she loved every minute of it.

**Published in Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age**

17K Followers

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays and occasional poems that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.