BONLEE — Life can turn on its head instantly, something one Chatham County resident knows all too well.
Candace Beal is set to open her newest business, the Bonlee Trading Post, where people can sell their art, crafts and goods. The store is located next to Crafters HeART Studio, another one of Beal’s passion projects.
She decided to open the business on Sept. 8, what would have been her daughter Caroline Beal’s 30th birthday. Caroline loved creating art, especially using watercolor paints with her mother to create beautiful landscapes and scenes.
Caroline died in Jackson, Mississippi in 2017 under mysterious circumstances when she was just 24 years old.
“She was the sweetest girl,” Beal said. “She just was so energetic and loving. She just loved people.”
Beal has decided to take her grief and turn it into action. She bought the properties at 14 and 16 Bonlee Bennett Road and created the craft studio and the trading post, respectively, each to honor her daughter’s legacy.
Artists and creators from Chatham County and neighboring areas will be able to sell goods at the Bonlee Trading Post. The venue is adjacent to the craft studio, so artists can also work in the neighboring space on new projects.
Beal said she’s working on securing supplies to sell ice cream at the trading post, as well as other goodies for patrons.
“It’s just sort of like an upper-scale country store,” Beal said. “It’s beautiful, it has beautiful brick walls, and I’m excited about it.”
Beal said there are artists and crafters who’ve already given her goods to sell at the store, ranging from ceramic vases and dinnerware to crocheted baby clothes. In addition, she said there are people who already come to the craft studio to create new pieces, some of which may end up at the trading post.
“All the crafty people in the county and surrounding counties make the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Beal said. “I’ve had children make bracelets and earrings … it’s so creative. It really blows my mind how creative people really are.”
While her daughter’s death spurred the creation of her businesses, honoring Caroline isn’t the only reason Beal decided to pursue multiple ventures along Bonlee Bennett Road.
According to her, Bonlee isn’t the place it used to be. Beal said over the last decade or so, the downtown area has slowly become unrecognizable — the grass has overgrown and some buildings are abandoned and have been vandalized.
Beal said she hopes her businesses can help breathe some life back into the main street in downtown Bonlee.
“I want people to feel like they have their own hometown,” she said. “I want them to have a place where they can take their children to have a Popsicle or a piece of bubblegum, and just stop in there and have their own little home-like place.”
Beal said when she first bought the block the buildings were on, the windows had been broken into and the front was painted a blue-green color she felt did not suit her ideas for the businesses. Since then, Beal had the windows and doors replaced, as well as completely repainted and renovated the inside and outside of the buildings.
People in the community have approached Beal several times throughout the trading post renovations. She said many have expressed excitement for the trading post’s opening date, as well as expressed gratitude for her work on the previously dilapidated building.
“People have stepped in to see what I’ve done so far, and they said they can’t wait to see how everything comes together,” Beal said. “We have a general store in town, which sells mostly beer, and then we have a Dollar General that’s good for buying milk and stuff, but this store is personal.”
Others in the community have donated furniture for the shop, including a couch where customers can lounge while browsing the trading post’s goods.
There are other personal touches from Beal that have been added to the shop. One of the most important things to Beal in the trading post is the picture of her daughter, Caroline, hanging above the couch in the middle of the store.
“I want to keep carrying her with me,” she said. “She would be in here everyday if she was still here. I can see her laughing and greeting people with a big, radiant smile, and I want to make sure I do that to carry her with me.”
The Bonlee Trading Post will open on Sept. 8 at 16 Bonlee Bennett Rd. More details can be found on Beal’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CandaceDewBeal.
Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @HeedenTaylor.