New store opens in Matlacha
As Denise Grinnan runs a small mallet around the edge of an 18-inch-wide crystal “singing” bowl, it hums louder and louder until it’s nearly impossible to carry a conversation.
The sound comes from the vibrations of the bowl, which can be felt by touching its side.
“You close your eyes and it just takes you away,” said Grinnan, co-owner of Sacred Passages, a new business at 4547 Pine Island Road in Matlacha.
Grinnan and her fiance, Allan Schein, both of Cape Coral, opened the shop about two weeks ago. The small shopping center where it’s located, which also houses a post office, gallery and hair salon, was the site of a fire earlier this year. It has since been renovated.
The store carries soap rocks made to look like various colorful stones, Lucky Bamboo plants, magnetic and gemstone jewelry, Famous Balance wristbands, candles, crystals and stones, angel statues, incense, dream catchers and other items. Grinnan, a registered nurse for the past 30 years in Florida and New Jersey, is also a licensed massage therapist and offers massage, hypnosis, natural healing techniques and past life regression.
She also offers jin shin jyutsu — similar to acupuncture, but using finger pressure instead of needles.
Opening a store like this has been a long-held dream, she said.
“I wanted to be able to incorporate everything I’ve learned along my path,” she said. “I got into it when I was taking care of kids with cancer in pediatric oncology.”
Schein has worked as a police officer, a truck driver and has run a vending business. He moved to Cape Coral from Wisconsin in 1992.
“It’s different,” he said of the business. “I’ve never had a retail business before.”
The couple chose Matlacha for their business because they felt it was a good fit for its unique nature.
“We’ve had people tell us that it’s long overdue, that this is what Matlacha needed,” Schein said. “We’ve had a good, warm reception.”
The couple is running a special price for Christmas on massage and other treatments, at $50 per hour, which can also be purchased as a gift certificate. The price goes up after the first of the year, Schein said.
As a visitor enters the approximately 750-square-foot store, two small dogs — Jersey, a lhaso apso, and Joey, a poodle and schitzu mix — immediately offer a greeting. There is also the smell of incense and the sound of two continuously running fountains.
Schein said the couple hopes to draw in people walking along the shops of Matlacha.
“That’s why we came here,” he said. “We’re hoping to get the foot traffic. They’ll be out walking and say, ‘What’s that place? Let’s go see what that is.'”
Grinnan said she brings with her a blending of both traditional medicine, through her nursing experience, and holistic healing through her studies.
“It’s like a balance between Eastern and Western medicine,” she said. “It just felt right.”
For more information, call the store at 283-0322.