Sharon Manor's Path from Schoolhouse to Bed & Breakfast

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Welcome to Voices of Inspiration.

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I'm your host, amelia Auld, and today we are in Abbeville, South Carolina, with Ms Benita Chupp at Sharon Manor.

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Thank you so much for having me today.

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I'm so excited to learn a little bit more about your story.

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Well, thank you for coming.

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I'm excited to share together and talk and share some of our story with you.

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So let's just jump right into it.

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Can you just start off by sharing how you decided to purchase and renovate this historic building?

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Well, it was not really something that we planned to do or had a dream of doing, other than it came up on an auction and my husband came out with someone else to look at it and thought it looked like an interesting place.

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He was like, are you crazy, why would you buy a place like that?

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Came home and told my daughter and I about it and we were like, why are we not looking at it?

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Well, let us at least go see what it looks like.

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So he said, well, go look.

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So we did, and in coming out we just saw so many possibilities here.

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I'm not a risk taker.

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I am not one to jump into something that looks scary.

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Normally this never felt like a risk.

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For some reason.

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It felt like it would just be exciting, and so we decided we would put a bid in.

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It was an online auction, and so we kind of came up with a figure that we figured was going to be way low.

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We just didn't figure we would get it.

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So we put that bid in and stopped there and it was in our laps.

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Wow.

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So we had a few moments afterwards like what are we doing?

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Why do we do this yeah?

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Our faith is very much a part of us, and so we felt like God gave it to us for a reason, and so we kept pushing on doors and decided, if it's not supposed to be for us, something would stop us from moving into it.

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And one of those things was to sell our other house that we were at, and we had people coming asking us to look at it.

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Asking us to said they heard we're going to sell it, can they come look at it?

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So within just a few months we had sold that and from there then we started into this and finished it.

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It was nearly at the finished stage when we got it, and so it was a lot of cleaning and just at the finishing part of renovations.

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So you can you tell us a little bit about what it was before?

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It was an old school and so it was school from the early 1920s until the early 1980s, and we don't have the exact dates, but we are pretty sure we're at the 100-year mark of the building.

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And so after it closed in the 80s, they just used it for a community center, local gatherings, I think they would have events or fundraiser type things here, and then it was just closed, I think for quite a few years, because people tell us that it was very run down.

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When the other owners got it, they had it for about 10 years, I think, and did major renovations in it, did an excellent job with what they did here, just in the lighting, the windows, put all new windows in a lot of the hard work they did for us.

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Are there any interesting stories that you've later learned about the history of the schoolhouse that you've learned now that you think is just pretty neat?

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It's just there's a lot of stories.

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A lot of people come back that have gone to school here and love to tell us.

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It seems like each one that comes, each room is a different place.

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This was first grade for them, but this might be sixth grade for somebody else.

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And so, and one thing, the little room right off the side of the door there they're always like that was the principal's office, spent a lot of time there, but yeah, and it didn't have any running water when it was first school back.

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They of course had outhouses and things like that, and so, as it progressed, then they added the you know, the restrooms in for the boys and for the girls.

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And yeah, it's very interesting too how it is like people like, oh, your electric bill is probably huge, but because of the way it's built, with the tall ceilings, it's actually not hard to heat and cool.

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So we've been amazed at how efficient it actually is.

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Was having a bed and breakfast something you always had dreamed of, or if it just kind of happened?

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It did kind of happen and since we're in it I have just, in the last year or so, realized it was a dream of mine as a little girl that I did not realize was actually there.

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I remember going to a home with my parents that she was doing some sort of a bed and breakfast, and I was just very young.

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I've asked my mom who it was and she doesn't remember it, but I remember then thinking how cool that was that they were doing some sort of a bed and breakfast.

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And I remember talking with mom before too that you know it'd just be fun to do a hotel or have something like that.

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We love to have people in and out of our home.

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Hospitality has always been something that we love.

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We had lived away from here for a while and the situation we were in then we had a lot of people in and out just because of the situation, and so when we moved back to South Carolina I was like nobody stops in anymore.

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I really miss that.

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Until we had this again.

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Then it felt like I was back to a spot where I love to have people in and out of my home.

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So how has your family gotten involved in the various aspects of running Sheeran Manor?

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They all seem to have a part of it.

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One thing that we were a little bit hesitant when we started with the bed and breakfast was to have people in and out of our home all the time, because for the children it's like that's not fun to have people in your house all the time, but it's large enough that people can come and go and you don't even know they're here often.

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My daughter my one daughter, my second daughter loves to cook, so she often helps me with some of the breakfast type things.

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And then my oldest daughter, who's married and lives close by, loves to decorate and so she has done a lot of my decorating.

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She loves.

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I just some of the rooms.

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I'll say go for it.

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Here's our budget, take it away.

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And the Amelia room especially, she has done an amazing.

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That was our most recent renovation.

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Which is beautiful because I've stayed there and it's a great name.

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Yeah, it was so cool to have you stay there, knowing that is your name too.

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But yeah, so she's very involved in that.

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And then our sons do a lot of some of the outside work.

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Our married son that lives close by loves to garden and so he's often helping with them the garden and the things outside.

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And then our youngest son, who is home right now.

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He's been my right-hand man this year with yard work and all of that he's been.

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so they all kind of have a part of it.

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That's really great that everyone has kind of jumped in to help and to be a part of it.

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Yeah, it's been really fun, and that was part of it too.

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When we first bought it it wasn't like I had young children to where it was hard, and so they all helped with the painting and the cleaning and the getting it ready to move into it, and so it was just a fun family project to work on together.

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What is your favorite part about hosting guests here?

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My favorite part would probably be just meeting people.

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I love to meet people.

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I love to hear their stories where they're from, about their families.

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That's probably, yeah, just meeting people and getting to know people.

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So how do you balance running a family business with family life?

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I know you just recently got a chance to go away for a little bit, but that doesn't happen often.

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Yeah, it has been a challenge.

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Especially we're always ones we don't plan a vacation a year out.

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Normally we just love last minute quick go.

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So that's been a little bit of a challenge to learn to plan a little bit more.

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My daughter both of my daughters have been available.

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If we do are gone, if it's just David and I or something, they're very willing to help with things here.

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But yeah, that has been a challenge.

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So what advice would you give to someone else wanting to start a bed and breakfast?

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What advice?

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Not sure, because for us it was just kind of it just happened.

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If you love people, if you love serving, it's an excellent spot to do it.

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And just to, we love to go off our cell, like you asked about how we do that, we love to go off, and some of the night, you know, we love unique places, we love culture, we love to experience culture when we go, and so we try to give that to people when they come is treat them like we would want to be treated with good hospitality, good food, good coffee, that sort of thing, a clean room.

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So, as far as advice, just do things like you would want done if you're going to go away.

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And you mentioned the coffee, and your husband has now started his own coffee business.

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Can you tell us a little bit about?

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that.

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Yeah, he actually was doing that before we lived here, when my sister opened the coffee shop here in town.

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She had opened Main Street Coffee Shop and when she did that he was like, well, I should roast for you because we love good coffee and at that time it was hard to find good coffee in the area.

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So he started.

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He went for some lessons and training to do it and so that's when he actually started.

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It was when she opened the coffee shop.

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So he's been doing it for about 15 years now.

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But it's been a fun addition to have with the bed and breakfast because each room has a small pack of coffee in it when they come and share that with them.

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So it's a side business for him.

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But most weeks he ends up being up Monday, tuesday, wednesday.

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He's often up by 430 or 5 to roast before he goes to his full time business.

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Wow.

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That's a full time side, it is.

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Yeah, it's getting more that way.

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More and more people are enjoying his coffee and want to stop in here and buy coffee too, which is fine if they do.

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That, that's great.

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How has Sharon Manor impacted your family's life and your relationship within the community?

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It has opened up the doors as far as the community.

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It has opened up doors a lot to get to know the community.

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It's been a very good thing to be involved in the Abbeville Chamber and so some of that we've been involved with it, also with a lot of the community.

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People have gone to school here, and so it's fun for them to come back and to come back to their school and see it being preserved for something like this, and so it's fun for them to come back and to come back to their school and see it being preserved for something like this, and so that has been a privilege really and an honor to be able to do that, for the community to have this as their school in order to still enjoy it.

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We also have some reunions.

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We have some school reunions and things that people come and as far as affecting our family, it has been really good because it feels like it has given us all something to work together as a family.

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Family is very important to us, and so we Sundays they're pretty much always home for Sunday lunch together and we're looking at well, the girls have the bees out the back now, and then we have the chickens and we're looking at doing more of that sort of a thing, the farming and the kind of sustaining ourselves right here together.

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So what do you love most about living in abbyville?

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well, I've lived here all my life.

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I was born here.

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The small community probably is what I would love the most knowing people.

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At one point you could go to town and pretty much everybody you'd pass, you'd at least know who they are.

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It's not quite that way anymore, but even just going to the grocery store is kind of a social outing, because you kind of plan to meet somebody that you know and chat with them.

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We love the coffee shop.

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Refuel is also open now too, so both of those spots are just fun spots to meet people.

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Yeah, small community is probably one of my favorite things about Abbeville would be.

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It's funny that you say that, because growing up it was very similar for me, and so as an adult I would tell my own children well, you know, you've got to make sure you look nice when you go out, because you never know who you might see, and they're like there's loads of people in our community we probably won't run into anybody and I'm like no, but you just don't know, because I was so used to seeing everybody when you go out.

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Yeah, that's how it is here too.

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You just know so many people, and our sons both played football, and so that's another part of the community that we love is just that you feel like a big family.

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It feels like small-town family.

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Everybody kind of knows everything about each other, but that's not always bad.

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Everybody kind of knows everything about each other, but that's always not always bad.

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It's going to be a good thing too, because I feel like in a small community, um, when there is a tragedy or something happens, everybody has their back, and I feel like it's a very caring community.

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It feels like it's you know, they take care of each other Well what are some of your favorite local spots here?

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I mentioned two of them.

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At coffee shop shop of course, my cousins actually own that now and then Refuel is just the newest one in town and I've been there several times.

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She's doing an amazing job with that.

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She's got a good breakfast and some lunches and things that are really good Village Grill, indigenous, off the Hook all of those are good and the close one up here, country Diner.

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I often refer that to my customers too, my guests that want just a good meat and three type place.

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That's a good spot.

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There's definitely some great options.

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It is.

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We've got a lot of good places to eat in Abbeville.

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For as small as we are, it is really some good spots to enjoy.

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I definitely agree.

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How does the history of Abbeville inspire and integrate into Sharon Manor's ambiance and hospitality?

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I would say the community together, coming together and just being able to preserve this for the community would be a lot of it, like we enjoy it and we kind of forget it's our home.

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But it's really special for people to come back and and to stay and to see we have a lot of guests come back that have gone to school here, and so that's a lot of fun.

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I'm sure that must be special for them.

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They probably never thought they would come back to this building and especially stay in it as you now have it, and I'm sure that's a different experience for them and I often tell the story.

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I may have told you, when you were here last time I had a guest that stayed.

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It was when we first were starting with bed and breakfast, thinking maybe this would be something we could do.

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I was apprehensive about it, not sure how it would go the next morning.

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I just asked her.

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I said so, how was your night?

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And she said, oh, she didn't hardly sleep.

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And I was immediately like, oh, you know what was wrong?

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And she said, oh, is nothing wrong.

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She said I was staying in my first grade room and I could hardly sleep.

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And so that, and she was in her seventies, I think.

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And so that was the first time that we really realized how much it would mean to the people to come back and to experience their school as a guest room.

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Absolutely so.

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If someone wanted to book a stay here or an event here, how would they find you online?

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We?

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are on Facebook and Instagram, sharon Manor, and then we have a website, sharonmanorcom, and that's a good place.

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You can book directly on there, but I find a lot of people still like to call and just book it that way.

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So either way is fine.

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Our phone numbers are on the website and online People can find it that way.

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And I will make sure to link to all of that in the notes of the episode.

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That would be awesome, and I have one more question for you.

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Do you have a favorite quote or any words of wisdom that you would like to leave behind?

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A favorite quote or words of wisdom.

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I try to live off the model of treating others like I want to be treated, and especially with where it talks in the Bible about do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

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My family, my grandparents, my parents have always treated others with respect and with kindness, and that is what I want to do for others, especially in the guest rooms and having people come in and out, I want to provide them what I would expect when I would be going somewhere, and just to treat them with kindness.

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I think that's important, thank you.

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Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your story with me.

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I really appreciate it and I'm so excited to be back here.

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It's good to have you.

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Thank you so much for sharing a little bit of your story with me.

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I really appreciate it and I'm so excited to be back here.

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It's good to have you.

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Thank you for coming.

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Thank you.