Monte Hewson will miss it all:The long hours, the nervous brides, the daily 4 a.m. drive to pick up flowers in Toronto. All of it.
Saturday is the final day for Monte's Flowers: a south end Guelph fixture for 40 years, first in the Campus Estates Plaza and then for the past 25 years at its current location on the hill overlooking Gordon Street.
A property sale is in the works, the property likely to end up as one of the new condos that now surround it. Hewson will be looking forward to spending more free time with his wife Ann, teaching music to his three granddaughters and volunteering in the community.
"It's been a good run," he said Friday as people popped in the store to say their goodbyes and wish him well. "The time has gone by so fast I can't believe it. It's been a good run. I've loved every day."
He wants his customers to know that he's appreciated all the trust people have put in him over 40 years.
"That's something I really want people to know," he said. "I valued that trust."
Hewson landed in Guelph in 1979. A landscape design graduate, he was working at a plant business in Toronto and followed a brother to the Royal City, starting Monte's Place, which was more a nursery in the early days.
"I thought that if I was working that hard, I should be working for myself," he said of the decision to set up shop in Guelph.
"I opened on May 13 in the Campus Estates 40 years ago. My wife and I came to Guelph because we loved the community," Hewson said. "It was a good move."
Monte's place grew, it prospered, and became a fixture throughout the city. He estimates he has around 250 corporate clients and it's not unusual for him to have done the wedding flowers of two generations of the same family.
"I get up at 4 o'clock in morning and go to Toronto and do all my buying because I like to see what I'm buying at the auctions.
"It's an emotive business. It's based on emotions and that's how I've run my store ... the clientele I have trusted me to create for them over the years. Their births, their deaths, their weddings, their anniversaries ..."
He said he had a specific concept with his shop, and that's why he's been so successful.
His business philosophy was based on personal customer service and maintaining a level of quality in what he offered.
"I believe in quality and presentation. I knew I couldn't be something to everybody, but I would target people that wanted nice things. I also believe that the steak is important, but so is the sizzle."
Times have changed and a lot of flower business is now done via the internet, with online ordering. Hewson said that you lose a bit of the contact, the personal connection.
He expects a busy and emotional day on Saturday. He says he has made his peace with the fact he's retiring, a process that took five years, but he will miss the job he loves so much.
Hewson stresses that the closing of the store has nothing to do with COVID.
"I love what I do. I have a passion for it. Every day I come to work I have butterflies."
