We were looking for the name for Sterling for quite some time. Just as with every decision and choice here, we wanted to find a name that we chose deliberately that had meaning behind it. At the time, we had the name "Happy Paws" as a placeholder. I feel now you can see how that did not fit our vision of what we wanted to bring to the community. After a couple of months, Reilly asked to sit down and talk about an inspiring story about a family and a dream. 

Here is his story:

There is a town "up north" called Albion with an interesting recent history still playing out today. This town had a bookstore that you may have seen on the big scenes or even felt on the pages of Robert Frost's work.

This bookstore had shelves up to the ceiling with the traditional roll ladders. Books going every which way to make room for more, with ample dust, added to the excitement of a treasure you may have found to read. The wonder was around every corner, making a small bookstore an easy place to get lost in fantasy.

With the internet making buying books cheap and digital copies being so quick to access, these special places are getting harder to find every day. The town was blessed to have theirs because it was owned by a couple that enjoyed being there in the morning to drink coffee and read in the early mornings in their retirement. They always had their doors open to help anyone who came through the door and the community. 

Getting older, they needed to let go of that special place they had loved for so long and looked for a buyer that would keep the accessibility to the pages. They had met a counter couple and heard their dream, and they once had long ago of wanting something special. After many conversations, they decided to sell to this couple who wanted to take their lives work, polish the dream, and put it back up high on the shelf for everyone to see. Their dream was to take this idea and come back bigger and better to make it in this new world we are in today. 

The wife being a contractor her whole life, she did most of the remodel her self. As a contractor, her body is what she had depended on for so long as a livelihood to support her family. They called the book store "Sterling Books and Brew," where they sold children's books and best sellers only to make room for a simple coffee shop in the back with study tables for those children in the community that needed to do homework. I can smell the coffee and hear the jazz still today.

While they were remodeling, One of the 12-foot book shelves did not come down just right and landed on the wife. After many doctors and frustrating conversations, she found out she may never walk again. I want to say most would give up, spiral, or lose focus, but they made a decision that they would make the time to fight for her paralysis from the hips down to find a solution for her to walk again while fighting for their dream. 
 

Seeing the community, college, and business come together was not only aspiring but honestly the most love I have ever seen in this world. if you ever get a chance to get up north and stop in a town that we hold dear, tell Sterling that sterling stent you and give them a huge huge for giving us passion for your pup.