Gordon & I had the pharmacy for 36 years. On our 30th anniversary, we celebrated with a big bash with an In N Out truck serving the works to its customers and community members. It was a very nice neighborhood - young and old families, friendly and everyone looking out for each other.

Until January 7, 2025, when the devastating fire took our neighborhood and destroyed it, the homes and its treasures and our livelihood. I being the business minded one immediately thought in my head what are we going to do, where are we going to reopen, how are we going to reopen. We had voicemail and there were 35 messages that first morning after and we listened to each one and called back each person to check on statuses and give info to patients on how to get their medications because everything was gone. We were in disbelief as all Palisadian were. I was so thirsty for info, joining every informational event to pass along info to those who could not attend.

We have considered many options to try to resurrect our business. I spoke at a gathering of community leaders at the Leo Baeck Temple which included Mayor Karen Bass and Steve Soboroff. We looked at spaces in The Highlands, Santa Monica, and Gordon was offered positions at several pharmacies in Brentwood and marina del Rey. We even met with governor Newsom to discuss insurance problems and in turn with the insurance commissioner's office.

And Rick Caruso even offered us a space but it was too small for us to operate in.

So, now, I’m telling people I’m just waiting for our landlords to rebuild on Marquez, because there’s no place like home, or waiting for something to fall in our laps. We miss our neighbors and community so much, it truly hurts. And like Firdosi pointed out, we didn’t know the impact we had in the community until after the fire; we thought we were just doing our job serving our customers with their medication needs. But it turns out our customers depended on us as much as we needed them.

So in the midst of waiting, here I am, not in a pharmacy, but taking up a new venture with an after-fire friend who we feel like forever friends because of our backgrounds and life’s outlook.

We want this to be a community forum where we can express our true colors, real feelings and to get info and insights out into the community. We are open to opposing views and welcome it (not attacks) but real “other side” views of what’s going on, because that’s how ideas are born, through good old fashioned discussions. So here we go……