Town and Country Florist has been on Main Street in Pickens for over a decade and has been owned and operated by Shelia Barton for five of those years.

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PICKENS – Town and Country Florist has been on Main Street in Pickens for over a decade and has been owned and operated by Shelia Barton for five of those years.

“Town and Country has been in business for about 45 years,” Barton said

Before taking over at the floral shop, Barton relied on her faith to guide her into the right job.

“I was in a position that I was not happy with at all, so we started praying and our Sunday school class started praying that the Lord would find me a new job. I had no idea that he was going to put me in my own business,” Barton said. “We all prayed for about six months.”

As Barton prayed, the former owner of Town and Country Florist put her business up for sale.

“Catherine Mulkey, the previous owner of Town and Country Florist, got in touch with me and asked me to buy the shop, and I said that I could not afford the shop, there was no way, I knew what Catherine wanted. As time went on, it was divine intervention,” Barton said. “The money she wanted from me was nothing what she had asked for and what she wanted for it was laid in my lap.”

Since joining the business community on Main Street in Pickens, Barton has seen a variety of changes.

“When we bought the shop five years ago, there were a lot more merchants on Main Street than there is now. A lot of places because of the economy have closed, but I think what the Chamber of Commerce and the Revitalization Committee is doing to bring new businesses in is great,” Barton said. “If you walk down Main Street now, the businesses are slowly coming back.”

Barton hopes that the future of Town and Country Florist will be secured through family.

“I hope I am here for another 50 years and I don’t want Town and Country to go anywhere. I don’t think it’s meant to go anywhere. I hope that I can hold onto it until I have to retire, and then my hope is that one of my children or grandchildren will take it and keep going with it,” Barton said. “I don’t want it to stop.”

Barton feels that Pickens is the right place to be for business and family.

“Being a part of the Pickens community is great, and to me, Pickens is the perfect hometown. People are friendly, everybody knows everybody, everybody is friendly, and everybody looks out for one another,” Barton said. “It is the perfect place to retire or raise a child.”