Independence

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be independent.  Growing up, it seems you can’t wait to get older.  Remember what it felt like to look forward to every birthday?  Leading up to the date you can’t wait and count the months then weeks, days then hours until you blow out the candles.  If you have kids, you know the day after their big day they say, “Only 365 days until my next birthday,”  I guess at that age, independence means looking forward to the day you’ll be living on your own.  Getting that first job, then moving out of your parents home and being able to afford  living alone,  Depending on your chosen path it may mean getting married, having kids and seeing them off to college.  Then what?  We have a lot of GREAT customers who have lived fantastic lives, achieved amazing goals and given much of themselves to help their family, their neighbors and their communities.  Now what?  Many of them share with us that they live alone, their spouse passed away, their kids have their own families and live on other islands or the mainland, or even other countries.  They are so proud but they are so alone.  They may be disabled, can’t drive and and often are dependent on someone to help them with daily errands.  We are always speechless when they THANK us for giving them back some “independence”.  The freedom and ability to make a choice, decide on their own, on their own time what they want to buy.  Jean said she relies on her daughter to take her to Dr. appointments, get  medications, and groceries.  So she didn’t want to have to ask her daughter to take her to buy a gift for her.  Now she can order gifts online  or call us and her package is shipped for FREE and delivered to her home!  We never realized our small local family business would have this impact