It's almost time for Tony and Heike Chiufo to sew their final stitch.
The local residents, who own Halton Hills Sewing and Vacuum, will be closing their Guelph Street business at the end of April and retiring.
The pair has been in the sewing machine and vacuum repair business for decades, having a history in Mimico, Brampton and now Georgetown.
It's clear their expertise has been appreciated by the community, with many people sharing heartfelt well wishes for the Chiufos on social media following the announcement of the store's impending closure.
“We were very overwhelmed by the amount of people saying they liked us because we are honest and trustworthy. We just go to bed at night with a clear conscience. And we’ve made a lot of friends out of here. That’s the part we’re going to miss the most,” Heike said.
Tony acknowledged that he will miss the social side of the business because he enjoys talking to people.
“You would be surprised how people just confide in you. So you get all kinds of stories,” he said.
“Sometimes you felt like a bartender,” Heike joked.
Now that the couple's careers are ending with grace, they're looking to the future. Once certain health issues have been dealt with, they plan to enjoy themselves by travelling to the Mediterranean, specifically to Italy and Greece.
Tony has memories of spending carefree moments on his grandfather’s olive farm in Italy, often riding the very same donkeys that turned the grinding machines used for making oil. His father worked multiple jobs in Canada to save up and move the family closer to him. Tony was eight at the time.
Four years later, papa Chiufo told Tony that he should get a summer job to help support his mother. As luck would have it, the Singer sewing machine company had a warehouse near where he lived. He walked there and asked for a job.
So began a decades-long relationship between him and the company, learning the sales and repair trade.
Heike, a German immigrant from a small village near Frankfurt, came to Canada when she was around five years old. Her father worked in greenhouses in the old country. But in Canada, he was a body shop mechanic.
Her mother worked various jobs, including at the car rental firm Hertz and in real estate. It was through her Tony and Heike met. At the time, Tony was running a Singer shop in Brampton’s Shoppers World mall. Her mother took a liking to the kindly sewing machine salesman and repair guy.
“I was dating this guy that my mom didn't like. And she says, ‘I met this really nice guy. You got to come and meet him at the store.’ I said, ‘If you like him, forget it,’” Heiki joked.
“I went there one day [with my mom] and she conveniently left the store real fast and left me alone with him. So we got talking and then after a couple of days of talking, he invited me out for dinner.”
They were married in the '80s, thus solidifying Heike's place in the sewing world. Their first shop in Georgetown debuted in 1991 in Moore Park. Three years later they moved to Mill Street before arriving at their current home of 140 Guelph St. in the mid-2000s.
Throughout that time, the pair has become pillars of the community, often supporting local sports teams. They donated sewing machines to schools so students can learn to work with textiles. One exceptional and lucky student going into the fashion industry got picked by teachers to receive a free sewing machine from the Chiufos every year, no doubt delighting the student as the vital piece of equipment is often quite expensive.
“It's nice because they come back in a year or two and they go, ‘Thank you so much for the sewing machine. This is what I've made and this is what I'm doing.’ And that feels good to hear them say that,’” Heike said.
Their name carried as far as the penal system as well, which Tony learned when he was asked to repair the sewing machines used in prisons as part of their education system.
In addition to travelling, the Chiufos intend to spend time with family and enjoy the company of their grandkids during retirement.