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(Continued) born into a generation's old jewelry making dynasty… quite the contrary. She started out very humbly as the daughter of first generation Italian immigrant parents. When she graduated high school she decided to go to beauty school and spent the first part of her working life doing makeup and nails at a local hair salon. It wasn’t until several years later when she got a job at a small, privately owned beauty boutique nestled inside a 200 year old white colonial home in a quaint little village shopping district, that she would get her first exposure to the jewelry designing world. The boutique not only provided high-end beauty services, but it also doubled as a retail store that sold beautiful dresses, ladies clothing and accessories, exclusive skin care and makeup products, and custom made jewelry handcrafted by the store’s owner. “Wedding parties and prom girls would come in to shop for their dresses, and then would come back and have me do their makeup the day of their event.” She explains. “It was a really nice setup. The customers loved all of the clothing and accessories we had, and when they left they looked and felt fabulous. We truly pampered our customers.”
Shortly after Lombardo started working at the store, she noticed that another lady was also running a similar boutique across the hall in the other wing of the building. The lady made very unique and original handcrafted jewelry pieces. Her name was Cathy.
Soon, the two would strike up a conversation in the hallway between the stores, and then a wonderful friendship ensued. “Cathy was such a nice lady and we instantly bonded.” Lombardo remembers. “We would have wonderful conversations about life and sort of look after each other. She would show me her newly created jewelry pieces and ask for my opinion on them. Of course I loved everything!” She chuckles and smiles.
Then, as many people do, Lombardo suffered an unexpected breakup of a 3 year romantic relationship that really knocked the wind out of her sails. “I felt really sad and lost.” She explains. “You give your heart and soul to someone, and then out of the blue, one day it’s suddenly over. Life can be really hard and confusing like that sometimes.”
As she struggled through her emotions and tried to make sense of everything that had happened, her life would suddenly take a life-changing twist. “I was really looking for something.” She remembers. “Some kind of purpose or meaning for my life. There had to be more than the heartbreaks and mundane routine I had fallen into.” That’s where her newfound friend Cathy would step in and cleverly put her on a new life path and journey. “One evening, just before the store was going to close, Cathy walked in from across the hall and handed me some beads and a few other things, and told me that she had a weekend project for me.” Lombardo recalls. “She told me to take the pieces home and turn them into some kind of jewelry design, and then bring them back on Monday for her to see what I came up with.” So Lombardo did just that. She took the pieces home and turned them into a nice bracelet, and then nervously showed them to her friend for critique. To her surprise and relief, Cathy loved what she had created. “Ah perfect!” Cathy exclaimed. “I love what you did! Here, I have something else for you to do.” With that, she gave (Continued)
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