The blending of families and co-workers often merges. Both are important in our daily lives. Sometimes the two blend when family members join the family business. More often than not, those we work with daily become important in our lives.

For the first 42 years of The Shopper, we worked in an office building facing the Water Tower at Kempsville Road and Battlefield Boulevard. My longest employee, Nikki Young, worked with me for 33 years and became another daughter in my life. Both Natalie, my firstborn, and my son, Justin, had literally grown up working in the business since they were teenagers. While they moved on to other careers later in life, Nikki remained for 33 years.

Martha Frugard and Julie Burley had been with us for 23 years when they retired, but they will remain in my life forever. The next group was with me for 17 years, and it included Karah MacDonald, who came to us right out of college. She has a baby shower today at Nikki’s home that all of us are excited about!

Our last group of employees has been with us for nearly 10 years. Of course, some others who have longer duration are still with us. And we just added a brand-new delightful person!

I sold the building in 2021 as the pandemic was settling down. But we have just begun our 43rd year! I have two other “daughters” now, who, over the past two decades, came and went and came back again with her military husband.

One former employee, Allison Joyce, who was a wonderful writer and account executive, used to stay into the evening when the production team was preparing to send a dozen different magazines off to be printed each month. She stayed until the last person went home—just to give them moral support!

That was a few decades ago. Fast forward to this year, and we were able to bring Allison’s story to our pages. This kind co-worker is in movies now, and this is something that we can truly say “couldn’t happen to a nicer person.” If you have not read Allison’s story of becoming a movie star, you can go to www.theshopper.com and find Allison’s story online. It is heartwarming.  

Allison has had tremendous feedback. While stories always bring comments, this was about a movie star and the kindest among them.

My brother-in-law, having been the chairman of our board for decades, wanted me to sell The Shopper four years ago and have fun! Go on trips, etc. I have such respect for this wonderful, very successful man that I reluctantly considered his advice.  

It is a somewhat lengthy story, but I am still here, and I am still having fun! We still have great clients who are becoming friends! Actually, over the years, when we had yearly parties, clients began to get to know each other and became friends also! Now that we don’t have the pandemic keeping us apart, we need to have another party!

Ironically, my brother-in-law is still working also. He has had a number of wonderful careers, and none stopped him from having a wonderful life and making the world a better place. While he is younger than me, neither of us will see 65 again, and we are each having a full life with our careers and the people we work with. Fun, actually!

I like to think that our mailed Shoppers spread badly needed good news, and even some joy, to our readers. For those of us working to put The Shopper out, we work hard to make it a good magazine in cities that we love, with people in our families and in our businesses that we also admire and love.

We are proud of both The Shopper, now in its 43rd year, and Doctor To Doctor, now in its 14th year. Mailed to all doctors in Southside, the next issue of Doctor to Doctor is scheduled to be mailed this October. Our Shopper’s medical issue will precede it, being mailed in August as always. And we begin work on Doctor to Doctor in August.
And stand by! We have some very exciting plans for our business future. You have made all our success possible by continually telling our clients that you “Saw them in The Shopper!”