Root family history owning D & D bait and tackle shop
Deb Root and her late husband, David, began the D & D Matlacha Bait and Tackle shop, known to most as D & D, in 2001. The couple and their three high school boys came over from Vero Beach in 1998, because Deb had family in St. James City. Once they got here, she says, they fell in love with the island.
“We all grew up on the water, so it was just amazing here,” said Root. “There was hardly anybody here then.”
They were here for 14 months when their eldest son, David was killed in a car accident on Stringfellow Road. David had been very athletic, said Root. Everyone knew him as the Mariner High School quarterback. After graduating high school, David had plans to attend the University of Florida, in Gainesville.
“It was July 4th weekend, and he was saying goodbye to friends,” Root said. “David was two blocks from our house in Manatee Bay when he overcorrected and wound up flipping over three times in his car.”
Having been in landscaping, Root said, she told her husband she didn’t want to continue in the same business after the devastation of losing their eldest son. Even family hobbies, such as riding their Sea-Doos, became too painful to enjoy without David.
They traded their four Sea-doos for a pontoon boat, hoping to enjoy a different experience on the water with their sons, Douglas and Dustin. In a chance meeting with the people trading their pontoon boat, the Roots decided to put down their weed-eaters, and mowers and get into the bait and tackle business instead.
“My heart was broken, I just couldn’t do it anymore,” said Root of their former family business.
It wasn’t long before the Root family settled into its current location in Matlacha and a new routine. Root says her sons, each at only a year and a half apart, were more like three best friends, and living without David, left Douglas and Dustin in a great deal of agony, which they had trouble processing.
“I was grieving, my husband was grieving and now we had a new business,” said Root. “I threw myself into work — it was like I didn’t want to be at home. The boys were growing up in our business and my husband had a couple of heart attacks. We still kept it going but his health was getting worse and worse. I just kept plugging along. I kept working. Unfortunately, in January of 2018 my husband passed away. We were married 42 years. I was devastated and didn’t know if I even wanted to do this anymore.”
Fortunately, Root’s father stepped in and gave her some much needed time to grieve and rest while he helped keep the Bait and Tackle Shop going.
“Dave passed away Jan. 7, and on March 17, I woke up and found my son Dustin dead,” said Root. “That was tough. A lot of people tell me I’m strong. I hate that. I’m not strong, what else was I supposed to do but keep going? You wake up every day and say a prayer.”
With the passing of their son David came an inclination toward the local trauma unit. As a result, the Roots focused on giving back through fishing tournaments in David’s name, giving all proceeds to local trauma centers, including the Matlacha/Pine Island Fire Control District, where they have a number of advanced life support bags with David’s name.
Years before all the devastation hit this family, the owners of the property where the bait and tackle shop is located sold out to an investor, who said he had no intentions of changing anything, and he liked the Root family running the business there. Feeling as though he was getting on in years, that man sold the parcel of land to the city of Cape Coral in 2016. Root says she isn’t privy to everything going on with the city, although she has been assured that the bait and tackle shop will remain, no matter which development plan is moved forward.
“The only thing they tell me, is that the bait shop is going to be there regardless,” said Root. “It would just be a new building that I would have to put up.”
Root hopes to one day retire and leave D & D in the hands of her son, Douglas, who currently helps run the shop.
“I went to put flowers on David’s cross on Stringfellow Road and his cross was gone,” Root said. “Jimmy Williamson heard about it and he called me to tell me he wanted to make a big steel cross, too heavy to move. I’m so thankful to Jimmy and Joe Williamson.
“I just hope this business stays in the community of Pine Island,” she added. “They have supported us. They are like family.”