Entrepreneur turns garbage heap into gold mine

Several years ago, an illness caused Veronica Gordon to halt selling in downtown Kingston, which changed her life dramatically.

Selling clothing items was her passion, and a trade that took care of her children for many years. But the Waltham Park resident had no choice but to pack up her barrels and store them in one of her rooms. One night, she got a vision that a space on the roadside that was being used for other purposes would be her new place of business.

"Is about three years ago and da little space here was like a garbage heap but mi come out and clean it up," she said.

That was the birth of Charm's Bridge View Stop, and her breakfast packages, which consist of different types of porridge, are some of the most sought-after meals by passers-by. She serves meals between 6:45 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., after which she packs away her cooking stuff, and the business is transformed.

"Mi just buy a trolley and start the breakfast ting, and then mi start add few brassieres and panties and it took off, so mi start add some new items to it," she said.

Located on Mandela Terrace, off Waltham Park Road, it is hard to pass Gordon's little 'store' and not take a second glance. There is an outfit for almost everyone and she said that the prices are very competitive. Every day isn't a sale day, but Gordon said that the store has been an inspiration to others who knew what the space was like before she began to accommodate it.

"I remember a small business operator just walked up to me and told me that when he saw me out there as [a] female, he had to feel himself to see if he had [testicles], and tell himself that if a lady can do it, he can do it, too. Mi just tell him say is survival and mi have to do what mi have to do," she said.

Gordon's store has not only added a few dollars to her pocket, but that is where she met the love her life, Timmy Gordon, about two years ago. The couple recently celebrated their first anniversary.

"One day mi out here suh and mi cook kidney and salt mackerel. The man come and tell mi say him want a salt mackerel and after him eat it, the rest a history. That was almost three years. This is just my spot and if God gave me that vision, I knew he was going to work out things for me," she said.