Village Living Volume 7 | Issue 7 | October 2016
Flowers Full Time
neighborly news & entertainment for Mountain Brook
Welcoming in Welch Elected financial advisor prepares to fill longtime mayor Oden’s shoes
Lifelong passion and hobby becomes booming business for founding florist of Marigold Designs.
See page A14
The Wait Is Over
After nearly a year and a half of planning and construction, tenants of the Lane Parke shopping center are opening their doors.
See page B1
special section
home & garden Mayor-elect Stewart Welch said he’s looking to improve the overall quality of life in Mountain Brook during his tenure as mayor. Stewart takes office, replacing longtime mayor Terry Oden, on Nov. 7. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
With the change in seasons comes home and landscaping improvements. Check out this guide to point you in the right direction.
See page C1
INSIDE Sponsors ......... A4 News ................. A6 Business .........A10 Community ....A16
Faith ...............A29 Sports ............... B4 School House .. B8 Calendar ..........B18
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By LEXI COON Stewart Welch never planned on being mayor. In fact, when he was approached with the idea, both he and his wife didn’t want any part of it, but after speaking with current Mayor Terry Oden, he changed his mind. Now, Welch is going to take the mayor’s office of Mountain Brook in November.
“Someone called me and asked if I would consider running,” he said. “And my first reaction was, ‘No.’” He said Oden reassured him Mountain Brook politics were in no way similar to the “total mess” seen in national politics today. “I literally sat down with Terry for a couple of hours, and he walked me through what it was like,” he said. “I thought about it and said, ‘You know, I would love an opportunity to give back
to the community.’” Welch admits he has no political experience but believes his past experiences in financial advising will help him the most. He began his career in finance as a life insurance agent and soon learned he liked the bigger puzzles of people’s financial lives.
See WELCH | page A30
Breast cancer survivor champions ‘unique’ refuge of holistic support By GRACE THORNTON When Susan Sellers was diagnosed with breast cancer, she got nervous. And then she got quiet. “My kids were 10 and 13 at the time, and when you have kids, it’s different — you don’t talk about it because you don’t want them to be scared,” she said. But she needed to talk. “I wanted to know what to do and what to expect,” Sellers said. So she found herself picking up the phone
and calling a friend in another city who already had been through that journey. “I was so thankful for that,” said Sellers, president of St. Vincent’s Foundation. “But sometimes when you talk to someone else who has had breast cancer, their story and diagnosis is completely different from your own. It would’ve been great to have a place I could’ve called to get the kind of support I needed in that moment of being overwhelmed.”
See SUPPORT | page A31
Susan Sellers, president of St. Vincent’s Foundation, runs the Forge Breast Cancer Survivor Center. Photo by Shay Allen.