east valley
Volume 5 Issue 01 Mesa, AZ
July 17, 2022
Downtown Mesa shoe repairman ‘busy all day’ BY MARK MORAN Tribune Managing Editor
W
IN THE BIZ
hen Fabian De La Rosa came to Arizona in the late 1990’s, he was just trying to save his own life. He had no idea how many other lives he would touch in the years to come. De La Rosa had developed a potentially deadly case of pneumonia while working as a shoe repairman at a shopping mall in Michigan. His doctor gave him a sobering assessment. “You wanna die, my friend?” he remembers the doctor saying. “I give you one week to leave the state. I’ll give you strong medicine.” The doctor had told him that even the best medicine wasn’t going to help De La Rosa overcome the harsh Michigan winter weather and the likelihood that pneumonia would regain a foothold in his vulnerable lungs. So, De La Rosa, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, set out for the warmer, drier climes of the Sonoran Desert where he had family. Now 58, he owns Lamb’s shoe repair in downtown Mesa. With the skills he picked up in Mexico and in Los Angeles, he fixes shoes, purses, jackets and cowboy boots. So many cowboy boots. His customers bring him 8, 10 pairs at a time. In fact, De La Rosa says looking back, he owes much of his success to being able to fix them. He wandered into Lamb’s after arriving from Michigan in the late 1990s looking for work. The owner at the time, Frances Public Notices ............... page 2 © Copyright, 2022 East Valley Tribune
Fabian De La Rose owns and operates Lamb’s Shoe Repair in downtown Mesa, which he bought from the woman who hired him when he moved to Arizona from Michigan for health reasons. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer) Shipman, had grown disillusioned with her cobblers and asked De La Rosa how long it would take him to repair a huge pile of boots. “The lady was so desperate,” he said. “She opened the door and there were at least 40 pairs of cowboy boots in there, unfinished. When I finished them in two days she couldn’t believe it. She was so happy!” And De La Rosa was hired. Five years later, with Shipman in declining health, De La Rosa bought the business on a handshake. Just two weeks after the official paperwork was signed, a woman in her 90’s came through the door and want(USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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ed to know “who is buying my business,” he remembers her saying. It was Maude Lamb, the original owner of Lamb’s Shoe Repair. She had only one request, De La Rosa said. “Will you keep the name?” He happily obliged. “Of course,” he told her. “No problem.” That was a Tuesday. On Thursday, Lamb’s daughter came through the door to tell De La Rosa that “’my mother died last night. She was very happy’,” she told him. “They asked me to go to the funeral. At first, they all just looked at me and then they introduced me as the guy who bought the business. They all welcomed me. They Subscriptions are $26 for 2 years, $14 for one year. Periodicals postage paid at Phoenix, AZ 85026.
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