Smith: Too much for bra man to keep up

Life tells Dick Wilcox it’s time that he end his good, long run in women’s undergarments.

Wilcox is closing Marga’s Intimate Apparel, an old-fashioned, full-service shop born in 1950 on Santa Rosa’s Fourth Street. The past 35 years, it has been a revered landmark at Montgomery Village.

“I’m 83 years old!” Wilcox said. He is clear that it’s not his age alone that’s prompting him to shut the intimates boutique.

Through the decades that Wilcox has owned Marga’s he has resided in Moraga. He doesn’t drive regularly to Santa Rosa, but when he does it’s 150 miles, round trip.

But his greatest issue is his job at home, a labor of love that’s become increasingly demanding. Ever since his wife and business partner, Hazel, died in 2012, Wilcox has cared for her mother, Lottie Doering. She is 106 years old.

“She came to live with us 22 years ago,” Wilcox said. “I am her sole caretaker.”

He would sell the lingerie shop, but he has sensed no buyer interest, so he’ll lock it up on or about July 31. His four employees and generations of clients must understand, but their hearts ache.

“I’ve had customers at the desk, crying,” said Ann Smith, the shop’s manager for a quarter-century, in her charming British lilt. She said the staffers at Marga’s were always happy to go to the homes of customers who couldn’t easily come in to be fit, and they would help to undress and re-dress a customer in a wheelchair.

“You won’t find that at Penny’s or Macy’s,” she said gently.

At nearly 80, Smith has been offered several sales jobs. Once the intimates shop is no more, she’ll move a block to the Buddies apparel store.

Wilcox concedes few regrets. Even the memory of a break-in at the shop years ago brings him a smile.

The culprit stole naught but strung bras and panties on landscaping and architecture all throughout the Village.

WHERE’S A NURSE when you need one?

Monique Schmidt couldn’t have been better placed when bullets began to fly a week ago today at Bennett Valley Jewelers. The veteran Sutter nurse was having lunch at the neighboring Molly’s Bakery.

Miller saw two masked men step from a Mustang and walk into the jewelry store. That instant, she called for someone to call 911 and directed everyone to huddle back in the kitchen.

The gunfire and chaos erupted, then Miller crawled to the bakery window. She saw one man drive off and a second get tackled on the walkway. Terror hung in the air as she rose, ran to the jewelry store and found employee Suzanne Dodd bleeding from bullet wounds to her arms. Miller tended to her until paramedics arrived.

And with Dodd’s permission, she removed her jewelry for safekeeping before the ambulance took her away.

Extraordinary. But it’s also just the sort of thing that nurses do.

(Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.)