FREEPORT, NY — Danielle Clukies sometimes struggles with finding words to adequately describe the range of emotions she and her family have lived through over the past three weeks. One thing, however, is clear, whirlwind does not even begin to do it justice.
From standing in the middle of Guy Lombardo Avenue at 1 a.m. on Nov. 13, watching as a fire destroyed the family-owned business she had grown up in and then re-opening Duryea's Flower Shop this past weekend inside a restaurant she has known for years, Clukies wonders how so much could have happened in such a short amount of time.
And yet, with no permanent solutions as to where the flower shop that has been part of Freeport's landscape since the mid-1980s will eventually relocate, the fact that Duryea's is even open for business in a year when the coronavirus pandemic has brought so much heartache to small business owners is almost miraculous.
"It has been pretty crazy," Clukies told Patch on Tuesday, three days after her business moved into Otto's Sea Grill on the Nautical Mile.
Clukies was in middle school when her family's family shop moved into the rented space on Guy Lombardo Ave., taking over a storefront that had housed florists in Freeport since the 1940s. But on Nov. 13, the shop was destroyed by a fire, taking with it years of memories for Clukies and a place that had become a second home and that wasn't just a place to work, but a place that became part of her over thee years.
As Clukies and her sister, Suzzanne, began to try to find a new space to reopen, Ilona Jagnow, the owner of Otto's, reached out with an offer that was almost too good to be true. Jagnow explained that the restaurant — which typically closes in January for a few months — had instead closed in November due to coronavirus-related restrictions.
Over the years, Clukies' family had supported Otto's and Jagnow had supported Duryea's. So with the restaurant closed for the season, Jagnow reached out to Suzzanne and offered a rent-free space for the flower shop to move into until a more permanent location could be found. Because the flower shop required refrigeration, it couldn't just move into any space.
So when Jagnow said that Duryea's could use to restaurant– located just 1 ½ miles from its former location – as long as she needed, Clukies was almost speechless.
"It was mind-blowing," Danielle Clukies said. "It was just completely mind-blowing that someone could be so generous. She turned everything around for us."
Jagnow told ABC-7 that as a longtime restaurateur, she and her family had experienced fires before over the years and that she knows the feeling that Clukies and her family endured when they received word that the flower shop was on fire. So with her restaurant closed temporarily and with a family she knew needing space, Jagnow offered a helping hand.
"If we could do something and help them, this was the time to do it," Jagnow told ABC-7.
With a temporary place secured, Clukies and her family went to work. They sent up the restaurant dining room as a floral showroom and used the kitchen for workspace to put together arrangements. Spreading the word of the new location has taken place primarily over social media and through customers helping pass the news that the flower shop is again open for business.
Clukies is amazed how everything fallen into place, knowing that without Jagnow's generosity none of it would be remotely possible. The flower shop is only responsible for helping pay for utilities as a space that had closed for the next few months is again being used. Although the days are long as Clukies and her family continue to search for where they will go next, to be open not even a month after Danielle Clukies stood watching the old location burn, she can't get over that she has a place to report to work each day.
Just two days before Duryea's opened in the Otto's space, Clukies sat around a Thanksgiving table with her three teenage children. Although the pandemic kept her extended family from gathering for the holiday as it normally did, Clukies said that she and her kids – ages 19, 16 and 14 – went around and verbally what they are thankful for this year. And considering the gift they had received from Jagnow, their answers all kept going back to the fact thee store would celebrate reopening on Small Business Saturday.
There are still insurance matters to tend to and decisions to make as Clukies awaits word from the owner of the building where her family rented space for decades decides what to do. But now open for business after celebrating Saturday's opening that seemed in ways like a Grand Reopening, the kindness of a fellow Freeport business owner isn't lost on Clukies.
"It restores your faith in humanity, it really does," she said. "You hate to sound cliche' but it really does. With everything that's been going on this year, it's hard. And when someone turns around and does something this amazing, it gives you a completely new outlook. It's like, 'OK, we're going to be OK and the world is still a pretty darn good place.
"It gives a rebirth to that feeling that there are amazing people in this world."
December 02, 2020 at 02:32AM
https://patch.com/new-york/freeport/freeport-flower-shop-discovers-new-life-just-weeks-after-fire
Freeport Flower Shop Discovers A New Life Just Weeks After Fire - Patch.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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