THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020256
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 96 lines
The last thing Shirley Warren remembers about the January afternoon in 1993 that would change her life is telling her husband she'd be right back after picking up their son in Whaleyville.
``But it was six months before I came back into this building,'' Warren said this week as she surveyed the rustic furnishings, crafts and collectibles of the Olde Country Store. ``And then, I was in a wheelchair.''
It was a twist Warren never anticipated, but she believes good things resulted from it. She and her husband, Bill, who at the time operated a country crafts business in an old fertilizer warehouse on Carolina Road, now own three retail shops: the original on Carolina Road, just south of downtown Suffolk, one in Chesapeake's Greenbrier Mall and another in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
It was in 1990 that they left a successful retail gift shop on Pawley's Island, S.C., to Warren's native Suffolk to get into the manufacturing and distribution end of furnishings, gifts and crafts. They eventually sold the South Carolina shop.
Then, on that afternoon early in 1993, tragedy struck the Warrens in both their personal and business lives.
On the return trip to the shop, Warren and her son were in a head-on collision with a van of Newport News Shipyard workers heading home to North Carolina. Four people in the van were killed.
Warren and her son, Matthew, then 17, were in Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for three months - two rooms away from each other. Bill Warren took over the care of his small family, and for six months the family business was all but forgotten.
``Being self-employed, we didn't have the kind of health insurance a lot of people who work for large companies have,'' Shirley Warren said.
Warren had several injuries. For weeks, doctors didn't know if they could save her legs. She had several reconstructive surgeries, and she still has pins and metal plates in both legs.
But now, Warren remembers best the welcome home from the hospital. For more than a month, neighbors and area church members prepared meals.
``It was like the people of Whaleyville had met and decided they were going to pull together until we got through it,'' Warren said. ``We could feel the love around us.''
Meanwhile, two part-time employees ran the wholesale business. And when they were able to return to work, the Warrens decided to open a retail shop again. Bill could concentrate on building the business back up while Shirley supervised the shop from her wheelchair.
``We wondered: Way out here? Who's going to find us?'' she recalled.
But the collection of unusual gift and household items attracted customers. A few months after she went back to work, Shirley Warren and her husband renovated the warehouse and opened 1,800 rustic square feet of old warehouse space to retail business.
``People from all over the world just seem to drop by'' the bright blue building with plastic geese outside, Warren said. ``We've had people from Canada, England, France. You'd be surprised who stumbles onto us out here.''
Last fall, they decided to expand. For the 1995 Christmas season, they opened the Olde Country Store at Greenbrier Mall. The ``city store'' is doing ``quite well,'' Warren said. In July, the Warrens opened another store in what had been an old tobacco warehouse near Myrtle Beach.
Today, the Warrens' son has mostly recovered from his injuries. His mother still walks with a noticeable limp. She can't stand for very long, and walking is often exhausting.
And she's been warned that someday she'll probably be back in a wheelchair.
``I'm lucky to be alive,'' she said. ``I know that. I'm so thankful to be able to do what I can.''
The Warrens, depending on employees they call their ``friends'' to run the shops, tour the country looking for unique items to add to their collection.
The Olde Country Store has its own brand of peanuts and peanut products, all emblazoned with ``Suffolk, Va.'' The store features a Suffolk afghan designed by the Warrens and imprinted with city landmarks. It sells almost as well in Greenbrier as at the Suffolk store.
Bill Warren, who, in the beginning, made many of the furniture items the shop features, likes to look for quality, individual craftsmen in small, out-of-the-way places across America.
The Warrens also frequent wholesale shows. They like to keep imports to a minimum and emphasize customer service and friendliness.
When the Warrens aren't on the road searching for new merchandise, Shirley Warren spends three mornings a week in Suffolk, and afternoons in Greenbrier. The rest of the week is spent in South Carolina. The couple plans to open a Christmas shop there around the first of the year.
``In vacation areas, Christmas shops do very well,'' Warren said. ``And the Myrtle Beach area is expanding rapidly into a year-around resort.''
The accident, Warren believes, directed the path of the business. Had they not abandoned the wholesale business and directed their energies toward the retail business, they may not have been nearly as successful.
Now, she said, ``I'm doing pretty darn good. I take lots of medication just to get around. But when you want to do something bad enough, you just do it, and I'll do it while I can.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by John H. Sheally II/The
Virginian-Pilot
[Shirley Warren, left, was severely injured in a head-on collision
with another car in 1993. She and her husband, Bill, opened a retail
shop that Shirley, wheelchair bound at first, could supervise.] by CNB