The Sacred Hearth

Chapter 1: Mango Sunset

All it takes is a blink; an inconvenient distraction. You can turn your back for a moment, and without warning, the world becomes foreign. Unrecognizable. Depending on one's situation, this can either be pleasant or horrific. The year 2024 had been a challenge of the mind and human condition as a whole. Stress and anxiety were the puppeteers, guiding and misguiding every day ending in "Y."

How does one cope with the modern world, even just for an hour or two? Chief among the locals in Roseville, Minnesota, scented candles were the solution. From every scent, size, and sentiment dating back to the time of the Romans, candles became a beacon of light through times of hardship.

As a child, this rang true for local Minnesotan, Moira Grant. Growing up in the windy city of Chicago, she and her parents had endured one power outage after another. Some would last an hour, while others would take a month to get back up and running. Winter was a nightmarish beast on home generators. Her father, Dale, speculated it was street kids sabotaging the power grid. Another theory was simply Mother Nature herself; wind being the constant force that it was.

Either way, the Grant family always had candles on hand. From the age of 4 to 17, Moira considered them to be part of the family. However, it had gotten to a breaking point with the power being out. At the age of 19, Moira and an old grade school friend, Erica Tripani, decided to make a go of it living in Minnesota.

Money was scarce, and what Moira made in restaurant tips plus two other jobs, she sent back to her parents to help with the bills. "A drop in the bucket," her mother, Maria, used to tell her. That was it. Not a "thank you" or a "you're trying your best," almost as if she resented her own daughter for leaving. Their relationship was verging on "estranged" in Moira's adult years. Dale, on the other hand, understood her decision. Living in cold and unforgiving conditions would drive a wedge in any family.

He acknowledged her emotional maturity and a willingness to keep the family warm and strong. While Maria scrounged what she could to pay for gas to keep the generator on, she couldn't help but slightly resent Moira for "doing her part." Was it jealousy? Was Maria intimidated by her own daughter? Fear for her safety? Like-minded questions only became stagnant well into Moira's teen years.

This developed a disjointed relationship that carried all the way into her early 20s. It wasn't until Moira got into Carlson University that she committed her time learning how to build her own business from the ground up. Financial woes, however, followed her like a wasp, buzzing in her brain.

Erica was a godsend silencing the noise. Before moving to Minnesota at age seven, she came from a loud neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. It took some trial and error, but she learned how to tune out background noise.

She supported Moira throughout her college challenges as she studied marketing at Minnesota State. In a way, their own struggles brought them closer, especially during the concept stages of the candle store. Five years, 48 vacant buildings, over 100 coffees, and 37 marketing plans later, St. Paul opened its arms to Serenity Scents. February 18th, 2022, was looking up for the candle business.

A ma and pop joint that housed various wax delights: Tumblers, Aromatherapy, Beeswax, and Pillers. It wasn't rubbing elbows with some of the more known candle brands, but that was the endearing thing about Moira. Between the two business partners, she maintained an air of optimism with a knack for storytelling. Erica, on the other hand, was a realist by nature.

It was two years into the business where things became convoluted. Erica saw great potential for Serenity Scents but secretly felt the place was becoming mundane. A smorgasboard of candles wasn't bringing as many customers as she had hoped. Whenever Moira tried to liven up a sale, she would give a backstory as to how a certain candle came to be.