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A Sour Ending to a Sweet Thing? Mary’s Sweet Bread bakery struggles to stay open
Apr 03 2008
By Russ Morey
Tucked away on an unassuming side street along the Pawcatuck
River, on the bottom floor of an average-looking house, there is
a bakery that produces Portuguese sweet bread, an almost
forgotten Stonington tradition adopted from the Old World.
Once a thriving business that worked to full capacity around the
clock to meet local demand, the sweet bread bakery of
59-year-old Stonington native Mary Soares, “The Bread Lady,” is
in danger of closing up shop. Numerous factors have contributed
to the decline of Soares’ business, the chief cause being the
state of the economy.
“People don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes and how
much everything costs,” Soares explained. “The price of flour is
up, sugar is up, it’s really tough…Everything costs money, even
the little things. First you obviously pay for all the
ingredients, but you’re also paying for the bags for the bread,
the labels, the ink for the labels, the ties for the bags,
business cards, advertising, and then you have to transport it
after you’re done, and we all know what the cost of gas is
like.”
Soares estimates that since she first went commercial with her
business 10 years ago, the cost to make a loaf of bread has more
than doubled, leaving Soares no other option but to raise her
own prices and look for side jobs to make ends meet. After years
of hard work expanding her Portuguese sweet bread bakery from
the ground up, the decision of whether to close her doors weighs
heavily on Soares.
Yet with typical defiance and a fighting spirit that she
attributes to her heritage, Soares has resolved that her bakery
will not go softly into the night.
“I’ve thought many times over the past two years about closing
up my doors, but that’s just not me, not now, not after all I’ve
been through,” Soares said. “This started out as my dream and it
still is today, so I’m going to do everything I can to keep this
ship afloat.”
Portuguese “through and through,” Soares is the daughter of a
Portuguese immigrant who came to America for a new beginning,
finding himself drawn to the coastal village of Stonington where
he earned a reputation as a skilled fisherman. While always well
provided for, Soares was raised in a very strict household. Not
allowed to date, Soares was married at age 16 to a man cut from
the same cloth as her father, a reputable Portuguese fisherman.
Within a year Soares gave birth to the first of her five
children. It wasn’t long after that Soares’ mother first began
to teach her the traditional family sweet bread recipe that had
been handed down from generation to generation.
A superstitious woman, Soares’ mother taught her all of the
rituals involved in preparing the recipe, but, most important,
Soares learned from her that it’s not just the ingredients that
make a good loaf, it’s the care and passion of the baker that
make a good sweet bread.
Soon Soares adopted her mother’s other tradition of always
offering her sweet bread to guests in her home. And in 1988
Soares began selling her bread for $4.75 a loaf to a local shop
in Stonington, the owner of which had tasted the bread at Soares’
house. While relishing in the joy of raising her children and
perfecting her baking techniques, Soares also endured decades of
patriarchal rule under her husband that prohibited her from even
venturing about town on her own. To this day, she still feels
the lasting effects from years of being sheltered.
“There was a time that it was scary for me to drive around town
by myself,” Soares admitted.
But after 33 years of marriage, after all her children were
living on their own and after caring for her parents during
their final years, Soares said she looked deep inside and knew
she had the courage to finally start a life of her own.
Following her divorce in 1997, Soares decided to open her own
business, purchasing additional equipment and dedicating the
lower level of her home to her new profession. It wasn’t long
before Soares had bought herself a GPS in order to find her way
around the local towns and to all of the area farmer’s markets.
Soares also began delivering her bread to McQuade’s Marketplace
in Westerly and Mystic. Business was steady, so in 2003 Soares
invested in her Web site, www.maryssweetbread.com. The site not
only allows online purchases, but also tells her story and the
tradition of Portuguese sweet bread and even features numerous
articles about Soares and her craft, including a spot in the New
York Times. And while everything in her life finally seemed
positive, tragedy struck.
At a routine checkup, her physician found an abnormality and
referred Soares to a surgeon to better assess the situation. The
surgeon, in turn, referred her to an oncologist, and Soares was
told she had a rapid-growing cancer. Preparing for the worst,
Soares made all of the arrangements necessary and rewrote her
will. For two years Soares underwent multiple surgeries and
procedures, none of which seemed to help. Finally, extreme
chemotherapy was suggested, but Soares wanted one final biopsy
before undergoing such debilitating treatment. Little did she
know that she would soon have the shock of her life. According
to the surgeon, the biopsy was “misplaced” by a negligent nurse.
“An alarm just went off in my head,” Soares said. “Things just
didn’t seem right, you know? They just weren’t adding up.”
Stepping away from the situation, Soares sought out one of the
area’s premier specialists and soon found that she never had
cancer, in fact, she only had a virus, treatable with
medication. All of the surgeries, procedures, and nearly
chemotherapy had been completely unnecessary, not to mention the
thousands of dollars spent in medical bills. Motivated to take
legal action, Soares was advised that the lawsuit would cost her
a tremendous amount of money and negligence would be hard to
prove. Even still, she contacted officials and the situation is
currently under investigation by the Board of Medical Review in
Rhode Island.
Through it all however, Soares said she is determined to go at
least one more year, hoping to turn enough profit to allow her
to keep her bakery open.
“It’s been a hard run as of late, but you learn from each and
every experience and it makes you push to keep going,” Soares
said. “I almost stopped when I didn’t feel well, but I love what
I’m doing. I’m so happy to have gone this far and carry on my
mother’s tradition. I hope it continues as long as it can, but
if it doesn’t I can’t complain too much. My bread has done so
much for me, and my life has been better off for it.” |
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