Long-time Loretto employee Anne Doss produces a monthly pop-up shopping experience called ‘Leona’s Closet” in honor of her mother, Leona, a former LH&R resident, who loved to go thrift shopping.
“I grew up as a thrift shop kid! My mother used to drag me to a thrift shop each Saturday and as a parent, I did the same with my kids. Who doesn’t love a good deal? I wanted to make that same experience possible here for residents.”
Instead of visiting thrift shops with mom on Saturdays, Anne now produces a thrift shop experience for residents in honor of her mom every third Saturday, 10:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m., at Loretto Health & Rehabilitation where residents take items home for free.
Anne doesn’t take credit for the idea; she said Loretto has done this for years, and as a resident, her mom enjoyed the ‘New to You Shop’ which was similar to Leona’s Closet.
“My mom loved thrift shopping, at the ‘New to You Shop’ while she was here living at Loretto. She was eager to show me her treasures—whether they fit her or not!”
On one of her last trips to the ‘New to You Store,’ her mother picked out a size 6X dress with little white and yellow daises on it. Anne said, “My mom was a petite woman and I said, ‘Mom! Five of us could fit in that dress. What are you going to do with it? She said, ‘It’s pretty, and I want to be buried in it.’ When she died, I honored her request.”
After her mom passed, Anne wanted to ensure the thrift store experience continued for other residents, so she got to work. “My husband, sister, and brother-in-law thought it was the best way we could honor my mom, so we renamed it Leona’s Closet and started collecting and organizing items to put on display each month, and we bought items from The Dollar Tree like games, crafts, and activities to offer more variety for our residents.”
Leona’s Closet sales began with a few residents coming down on a Monday afternoon to find a few treasures but quickly turned into dozens of residents lining up in the hallway for the shop to open.
“Word spread about Leona’s Closet and we were thrilled that more residents wanted to come to shop. To accommodate everyone, we moved the sale to Saturday mornings.
Leona’s Closet had a strong following from 2012 until the COVID Pandemic shut it down in 2020. Since then, items were still donated and given to residents but until recently there hadn’t been another Leona’s Closet sales event.
“After my husband Jim passed away in February, I donated his clothes to Loretto and saw how many donations they had waiting for residents who needed them. It was then that I decided to bring back Leona’s Closet, and in a way, it was a full-circle moment—it started because of the passing of my mom, now it’s starting again after the passing of my husband. Sometimes, something finds you, you don’t find it; it kind of haunts you and you say, OK, I’ll do it.
Anne said bringing back Leona’s Closet has been therapeutic for her, giving her a way to give back during times of grief, and residents are grateful for both the items and the experience. She said, “I love to see the residents smile when they discover something new or talk and laugh with one another while they shop. It reminds me of my mom, and it makes me smile.”