After nearly three decades at Awamoa Clothing, Debbie Shields has said good-bye to her "baby".
She started at the second-hand clothing store in Awamoa Rd, in Oamaru, when her daughter Jacinda was just 4 years old.
But after selling the business to move on to a life of "semi-retirement", one of the things Mrs Shields was looking forward to most was spending time with her two grandchildren.
Jacinda (now Ryburn) had grown up, married, and now lived in Reidston.
And the consignment clothing store that once was open just six hours a week now had 4000 names in its books of people who sold their clothes through the store. "It’s kind of the end of an era for me," Mrs Shields said on her final day.
"It was my baby; we sort of built it up and up."Even after 29 years, there’s still a little bit of excitement in it with the people bringing in their clothes. Because you don’t know what they’ve got, opening up their bags to price them, ‘Oh, that’s lovely’.
"That doesn’t go away.
"We’ve got quite a few regulars, who started with me right from the beginning. And they come in every week — every week — sometimes just for a chat.
"Sort of locals who just walk down for a bit of a yarn in the morning.
"The people will be the biggest thing I miss — and Debbie."
He co-worker Debbie Fluitsma had been with her for 23 years and the two had become "great friends".
Mrs Shields’ 83-year-old mother played a big role at the store too. Margaret (Twinkle) Macaulay had been helping "right from the beginning".
"She came in every Friday to do the "bookwork"; she would open the shop on Saturday mornings too.
(And she still did the arithmetic at the till faster than Mrs Shields could on her calculator.)
Mrs Shields was now serving the next generation of some of her early customers.
And had watched children grow up shopping in her store.She saw pieces of Awamoa Clothing on the streets of Oamaru.
And on her last day, she was wearing a dress she had picked out from the store.
Her children grew up dressed in clothing from the shop.
"I’ll miss that, too. I’ll miss being able to dress the family, but they’re old enough now to do it themselves.
"So, yeah, there’s a lot I’ll miss, but there’s a lot too I’m looking forward to."
She would be spending "lots more" time with her two grandchildren in Reidston, or training her 2-year-old golden lab — another priority.
"It’s a very emotional day," she said on her last day as the owner last week.
"A very emotional day, there will be a few tears before the end of the day, I should think."
But it was bittersweet, because after she put the business and the building on the market, she found the "perfect" buyer.
Or maybe Kay McKenzie found her.
K’s Place For Clothing, as the shop would now be known, would continue selling second-hand clothing, keeping the business alive. Back in the beginning, some people had steered clear of the second-hand shop, Mrs Shields said. But times had changed, and the shop was busy.
"There’s not the stigma now. Back in the day, perhaps when I started off, there was. Second-hand shops did have a bit of stigma back then. A lot of people wouldn’t have gone in, or wouldn’t have taken their clothes in for sale, but that has totally changed."
Over the years, shoppers who bought off the dollar rack had supported Red Cross and IHC New Zealand, with proceeds going to those organisations every month.
And through World Vision, customers of the store had sponsored two children as well: Stephen, from Uganda, and Elenita, from India, who were now also grown.
