Town staple to make long awaited re-opening

Northborough - Bruce Terry, one of the owners of O’Brien’s Five and Ten, a local landmark, calls his general store his “Field of Dreams.”

    “If you build it, they will come,” he quoted.

    The March 2008 fire that engulfed his business was a life-altering experience. Now, Terry is gearing up for its re-opening, tentatively scheduled for March 5 at 9 a.m. Terry is thrilled about getting back to work.

    “It’s been very progressive the last couple of weeks,” he said. “Every day we feel a little bit better because we are nearing the end of a long, long journey.”

    According to Terry, it is financially impossible to rebound from the fire destroying his business and it’s been challenging emotionally as well.

    “It was one of the most devastating things that have happened in our lives,” he said. “It was so emotionally dragging because we were not able to save one thing from our store.”

    Despite that, he’s optimistic.

    “We’ve put a lot of our money [back into the business] and have faith in the community,” he said.

     The generosity of the people in town has been a welcomed surprise for Terry and he appreciates all that the community has done to help.

    “We’ve had customers come by and help us stock the shelves,” he said. “We have a very loyal following with customers. We’ve gotten letters and cards and phone calls and e-mails looking for us and hoping we are coming back.”

    Getting the store back up and running again was no easy task. Several obstacles slowed the process including the ice storm in mid-December, and a battle with their insurance company.

    “There were a lot of roadblocks,” Terry said. “We were very, very frustrated many times.”

    Terry can’t help but wonder about the emotions he’ll have when O’Brien’s opens its door for business. It will be a shining light at the end of a very dark year.

    “I well up every time I think about it,” he said. “We’re going to see so many people that we care about that we haven’t seen a whole year. They’re not just our customers, they are our friends.”