Hope Rises Out Of Ashes

If attitude is everything, then Mary Shepard must have it all.

Two weeks ago, she was the co-owner of Make Time to Create, a thriving craft booking supply store in Newburgh.

In a few hours, just about everything in the shop was gone, destroyed by an early morning fire. Eight other businesses and a church were also lost in the Nov. 24 fire.

Shepard is also employed at Sarto Retreat House in Evansville as an assistant cook. She took some time last week to sit and reflect on her losses. As she thought about the fire and everything that was destroyed, she smiled. "The more you think about it -- it's stuff."

The dream of owning the shop goes back to conversations with her co-owner, Dolly LaBelle. "I took classes from her, and we talked about our dream of owning our own place."

In July of 2010 their dream came true as they began operating a 1,200 square foot shop that was filled with supplies for scrap booking along with a studio area with individual work spaces. Their inventory included over 400 die cuts, over 200 punches and over 300 rubber stamps.

Shepard says that "crafting" has been her passion since she was a young girl. "I was 13 years old, and I worked at a fabric store. I had been sewing my own clothes for four year."

She change direction a little back in 2002 when her father was hospitalized. "I took up scrap booking then. It was a release for me, and it made me forget what was going on."

Spending time at her store became her "playtime," and her customers became her "playmates," she said. "We would eat and socialize," she remembers, adding, "We were not a gossip center. We were interested in people's families." Some customers were receiving cancer treatments, and "we were a support group for them."

But since the fire, that lovely place is no longer. She wipes tears from the corner of her eyes as she remembers getting the phone call from the co-owner early on a Saturday morning. That news brought instant memories of the tornado that ravaged sections of Vanderburgh and Warrick counties back in 2005. "My daughter's house was destroyed in that tornado."

After Shepard received the phone call about the fire, her son, Matthew, drove her to Newburgh. When they arrived, they saw "there was nothing there."

As the day progressed, the firemen brought her a few items that had survived the flames. One of them was an album containing a photo of her brother who died 12 year ago. "I was very happy," she says of that find.

Her son reminded her that while every thing was gone, she still had her memories. "I said, 'That's right.'"

Today, she reflects on the blessing that no one was in the shopping mall when the fire started, and that no one was injured.

Still, the loss of the shop is like a death, she says. "First you are in shock, then mourning, then you are mad at yourself because you left stuff there."

All the community support has helped, she said, noting that all of her customers "want us to reopen."

She continues to be thankful that nobody was hurt. Recalling the aftermath of the 2005 tornado, she acknowledges, "This is just stuff that I bought."

Her landlord is planning to rebuild, and Mary and her partner "want the same spot -- right in the middle!"

She's heading out to a scrap booking expo in California in January to attend classes and purchase items for the shop.

"After the initial shock, I thought, 'There's not much you can do. What's done is done. Just go on -- and do it better!'"