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EVERY DAY IS MOTHER’S DAY: Jean and Steven Brach have worked shoulder-to-shoulder at Paperworks for 37 years.
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POWELL RIVER
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• May 2021 • prliving.ca
Marine Avenue’s mother-son team BY ISABELLE SOUTHCOTT
Most mothers complain that they don’t get to spend enough time with their grown-up sons. Not Jean Brach. Jean is luckier than many as she has been working with her youngest son Steven at Paperworks Gift Gallery on Marine Avenue for 37 years! These days Steve is the boss and Jean works for her son, but it wasn’t always that way. A few years after Jean opened the store in 1983, her husband was diagnosed with Guillain Barre syndrome and was hospitalized in Vancouver. “Mom went to Vancouver for six months to look after Dad,” Steve explained. “I was at Langara College and came back to Powell River to run the store and never left.” He was 21 years old. When Jean first opened Paperworks they sold original and limited edition prints and a few art cards. “We expanded because people kept coming in asking us for T-shirts,” said Steve. “They wanted Powell River shirts,” added Jean. Then, and now, the Brachs have done their best to keep customers coming
back. “We have tried to change with the times and be flexible with our product lines,” says Jean. She remembers when Beanie babies were all the rage and Paperworks carried them. “People would call from England looking for them.” Jean and Steve work well together. “I like working with him because he is very calming. He is messy but that doesn’t matter because I clean up after him!” says Jean. And, to top it all off, Steve is a good storyteller. “He tells me the most interesting stories about hunting, fishing and golf every day. And he’s so kind; if he wasn’t my son, I’d still want him to be my friend.” Mother and son have fun working together. “We don’t agree on everything every day but some days we do,” said Jean. “We always manage to work it out,” Steve adds. When it comes to gift wrapping, Steve is da bomb! “At one time Steve didn’t have a clue how to gift wrap anything, but now he’s the main gift wrapper at the store,” says Jean. For the last 20 years, the mother/son duo have depended on Pat Pryor. “I have to work with two older women,” Steve says. “We’ve been a fantastic team for over 37 years,” says Jean. “It’s been an amazing run.”
| isabelle@prliving.ca