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08/11/2021 08:30 AMAfter 108 years in business, Myers Flowers in Branford is closing its doors on Saturday, Aug. 14 and owner Lee-Ellen Magna, who turns 71 this month, is retiring after 40 years there.
Lee’s grandfather Charles Myers opened the shop in August 1913 and generations of the family continued to serve customers thereafter. Myers died in 1947 and Lee’s father, Allan Kleiner, took over in 1950. Kleiner died suddenly in 1959 and Lee’s mother, Selma, ran the business until Lee’s brother, Chuck, and his wife, Elsie, took over.
Chuck passed in 2005, so Lee and Elsie ran the shop until Elsie, whom Lee thought of as a sister, passed away in 2017. Since then, it has been Lee and a few other staff members balancing the necessary design and business skills.
“My mother was artsy, and she had worked in the business,” Lee says. “She never really did any of the business end of it, and there she was with two little kids [after my father died]. My brother and I were 9 and 11, and she took over the business and kept it going until my brother went into the business with his wife. So that’s where Elsie came in. My mother trained her, and Elsie also was artsy; she went to Paier College,” an art school in Hamden.
Lee began working at Myers Flowers full-time in 1981 when she had her first child and left teaching to come work in the family business.
“I had worked there all my life,” she points out. “I’d come home from college and work the holidays and such or during the summer.”
‘So Bittersweet’
On retiring, Lee says, “I’m excited but it’s so bittersweet. I have customers sending me notes, I have customers sending emails, and everybody is so sweet.”
Lee and her husband, Rich, who is already retired, plan to cruise around in their 1976 MG MGB (color: Screaming Yellow) and drive cross-country (in a different car, Lee clarifies). The couple is a member of the CT MG Club.
They also want to spend time with their daughters, Amy and Stephanie, and their granddaughter, Freya, who is six months old. Lee and Rich live in Guilford. Amy and her husband, Brice, live with Freya in Waltham, Massachusetts, and plan to move to Connecticut next year. Stephanie lives in Dallas, Texas, and works in human resources for Neiman Marcus.
“Family is everything, so we all just love getting together,” Lee says. “Chuck and Elsie had a son and a daughter, and their kids and my daughters grew up together like siblings.”
Of her granddaughter, Lee says, “She’s just the most precious thing. When Amy was pregnant and I was telling people, people who are grandparents said, ‘You won’t believe what the feeling is,’ and they’re absolutely right. It’s so different than when it was your own kids. It’s very exciting.”
Lee says she and Rich have been discussing her retirement “for a couple of years, and when COVID hit, I said, ‘There’s no way I’m retiring. COVID is not going to push me out. We’re going to keep it going.’ I mean, I’ve learned this business on my own. My brother was great teacher, but he handled it all and then it fell into my hands. Did I make some mistakes in the first couple of years? Probably. I did, and then I figured it out. It’s interesting running a business. My husband has been a great supporter.”
Although the flowers have been ceaselessly vibrant and fragrant over the decades, Lee says she will miss interacting with her customers the most.
Running a business “is tiring, but the customers are wonderful, and I would say that’s my favorite part.”
Lee speaks highly of Branford, where she works, and Guilford, where she lives.
“My kids grew up in Guilford, and in the Guilford school system, and it was a good, comfortable place for the kids to grow up and for us to be,” she says. “And Guilford is a beautiful town with the green and hiking places, and it’s just close to things. And, I mean, I love Branford, and we’re right here in the center. Branford’s a wonderful town. The people are friendly and we’ve made great friends here in Branford with the business.”
Life on the Open Road
Lee and a cousin drove cross-country and back about 50 years ago, and Lee says she is looking forward to embarking on a similar adventure with Rich.
“We love to drive and we really want to drive around the country in short trips,” she says. “Pick an area, get there, drive, and really see this country. Anything we can do or see. We’d love to travel Route 66, that’s the type of people we are and that’s what we plan on doing while we’re healthy and while we can. Unfortunately, we’ve all seen too many people pass away too early.”
Some planned destinations are the national parks, the Hoover Dam, maybe a foray into Canada, “almost anywhere as long as it’s not too hot,” Lee says. “We just need to time things by the weather.”
While she’s traveling the highways and byways of America, she’ll be thinking of people back home.
“I will miss the customers,” she says. “I’ll miss the interaction. I feel bad that the flower shop is leaving the center of Branford.”
But Lee is ensuring her customers are taken care of. The owner of Forget Me Not florist in North Haven, Luigi Nuzzolillo, will acquire Myers Flowers’ web address and phone number for his shop. They currently share a designer, who will work at Forget Me Not full-time when Lee retires.
Lee says, “We’ve had a relationship for years, and he really cares about my customers. I wanted somebody who wasn’t just doing it for financial reasons but cared about the business, and he respects that we’ve been in business over 100 years. So it’s a good fit and they do nice work.”