This is Carolina: Store owner hides crosses in furniture so every home has ‘a blessing of some kind’

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - Downtown Conway has become bustling with mom and pop stores over the years as its historical buildings are slowly filling with new life.

One shop, just under two years old, especially keeps its customers in mind even after they leave. For anyone who has bought furniture from Fourth and Main on Laurel, they may have found something special inside.

“I didn’t tell anybody for a long time. It was just kind of my little secret. But what I say is that every home needs a blessing of some kind. Maybe there’s something going on, maybe there’s not, but every home needs a blessing. So it’s my way of doing it,” Laura, Fourth and Main on Laurel’s owner, said.

Before she turns her ‘closed’ sign to ‘open,’ Laura is busy hiding away her tiny blessings.

Those trinkets came from a little wood shop Laura and her husband visited while on vacation in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

“And they had these baggies of little wooden crosses and it was like five dollars for the whole bag. And I was like ‘Those are so cute and I’ll buy them and do some thing with him at the store.’ At first I was thinking just put them in a bowl on the counter and customers could just grab them,” Laura said of what she planned to do with the little wooden crosses.

Then, she said, she had a better idea.

“So it just popped in my head. And of course I’m sure it was Jesus talking to me. But He said, you know, ‘Put one in every piece of furniture.’ So, in every piece of furniture in here, once we put it on the floor and get the price tag on it, we stick the cross in there,” Laura said of her shop’s now not-so-secret tradition.

Laura explained her grandkids love to help hide the crosses. Although the crosses are light as a feather, they’ve done their intended job for some customers.

“One customer for instance, she said that she had been going through a really bad time in her life. And she bought the furniture and we delivered it. After we left, she was putting her stuff in her chest of drawers, and she opened it up and there was the cross. And she considered it a sign. It was just a sign to her,” Laura said with a smile.

Laura owns two Fourth on Main stores. One is on Laurel Street and the other is on Fourth Avenue, both in Conway. She said it’s turned into a family business. Her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandkids all help her run the store when they can. It would be no surprise to find them there while you shop.

“I love the little bitty ones. I think the little ones are so cute,” Laura said as she hid more crosses.

She hopes customers will buy some furniture to find one. If not, both shops are filled with southern and farmhouse decor.

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