A NEW Selkirk shopkeeper is living her dream.
Cathy Meldrum, 60, has opened Granny’s Den in the High Street.
“I’m selling everything you would find at your granny’s. When I was young you would go to your granny’s and she would have sweets, handbags, hats, gloves and scarves and you could dress up – so that’s what we’ve got, along with arts and crafts materials.”
Also in the former sweetie shop are beads and other items to make jewellery and Cathy hopes to run a class teaching bead jewellery making in January.
And she said, “If you’re going out at the weekend and fancy a new necklace, earings, or a bracelet, you can come in and choose their beads and I’ll make it up then and there, if it’s not busy.”
The sweeties are traditional, but they’re all sugar free: “The selection is amazing, from dandelion and burdock to strawberry fizzes,” said Cathy.
She also sells Bessie bags, at her granddaughter’s insistence.
A former hairdresser and waitress, Cathy lived in Greece for 14 years where she worked for a holiday company.
Back for three years she says now: “This is my venture and I’ve spent my life savings on it.”
Cathy’s grandparents were from Selkirk – and she was to have been born at the cottage hospital, but it was full so came into the world in Galashiels. Her parents spent some time in Selkirk before moving to Edinburgh.