The new owners of the Maheno Tavern recently opened the doors of the North Otago pub for the first time in over a year.
Ms Rea said the death of their baby son in May after an emergency Caesarean section spurred them on.
"That really changed a lot of perspective," Ms Rea said.
"We had all the plans in the world and kept making excuses.
"After that, it was like, ‘well, let’s just give it a go’.
"He really gave us a life lesson — life’s too short."
It was an eye-opening experience, she said.
"We had a lot of support from so many people but what really jumped out to me was that once we started talking about what happened to us, there were so many people that came to us and said, ‘well, actually this event happened in our family too’.
"It really made me think, ‘wow, a lot of people have got things going on, and the pub could be quite a cool place for people to open up."’
She hoped the pub could be a safe environment where the community felt supported.
"It’s a place for people to vent and share their stories.
"You bottle a lot up as a farmer or as a male.
"It’s tough out there, especially for farmers, there’s a lot of mental strain there. Just to have this open again is great."
The majority of the preparation before opening was maintenance: the building had been closed for more than a year.
On the administrative side of things they had to "start from scratch", Ms Rea said.
"The menu, the staff, all the accounts, everything.
"The response from the community and Waitaki has been awesome."
