The Potting Shed to change hands
The email landed in my inbox last week with a curious subject line that read, “A very personal note about big changes ahead.”
It was a message from Kathleen Carroll, the lovely owner of the Potting Shed, a charming little gift and plant boutique on Bolinas Avenue in downtown Fairfax.
It has gently occupied its place on a street that has seen a number of stores change hands over the years.
Now, it’s virtually impossible for me to stop in Fairfax for an errand and not take a few minutes to stroll through the small downtown with its collection of bars, restaurants and assorted storefronts and see what’s new.
I especially look forward to crossing the street to the Potting Shed to peer through the set of decorative gates, even in the evenings, to see what intriguing items might be there.
There are Buddha faces, with their benevolent expressions gazing down from their places on the walls, tillandsia, potted succulents and other plants, urns and pots, cheerful signs with greetings and positive quotes, wind chimes, colorful scarves and jewelry, and more.
But, on this day, when I clicked open the email, the reason for “big changes ahead” was immediately clear and terribly sad, although from the tone of it, it was clear that wasn’t what Carroll would want from her message.
She wanted to let her customers know that she was in hospice care, but that her thoughts were still with her beloved shop.
“Perhaps I am breaking ‘the rules’ about being too personal in a business email but the Potting Shed is so much more than just a shop. Because of you, our wonderful customers and community, I have been able to live my dream of owning a small business, and oh, what a special business it has evolved into,” she wrote. “It has fed me in so many ways.”
She and her husband, Moisés Elterman, purchased the shop in 2008, eight years after the shop’s founder Lexi Fitzgerald first opened it.
In her message, Carroll also wanted to reassure fans of the shop that it will go on under Fitzgerald’s care and credits her with being her “right hand and rock for all these years, personally and professionally.”