Hair salon back in business
CONNELLSVILLE – A life’s path can change in the blink of an eye. Just ask Karen Molinaro Connell. Two Fridays ago, she and her partner, Josh McLaughlin, had finished their last hair appointment of the day and headed to their respective homes.
Before the sun had risen, the two were back at the West Apple Street hair salon watching as firefighters inundated an adjoining business office with thousands of gallons of water to put out a fire.
“At first, I thought we were going to be alright,” said Connell. “The firemen told me it was in the rear of the building and away from my shop.”
She returned to her South Side home only to be called a short time later and asked to bring a key to allow the emergency personnel into the business as the blaze had started to spread.
Before she arrived, said Connell, it became necessary for the firefighters to break into the shop to contain the expanding fire.
“I knew then we were in trouble; we were going to lose everything,” she said.
As the night sky gave way to dawn, Connell and McLaughlin clutched their appointment book, which had been rescued from the building, and wondered what the coming days would bring.
Across town, Henry Molinaro, Connell’s father, began his Saturday routine by attending early morning Mass at St. Rita R.C. Church and then joining family and friends at a local restaurant for breakfast.
It was there that the family patriarch learned of the early morning fire that damaged his daughter’s business.
For the next several hours, their paths and repeated telephone calls criss-crossed, but the two never made direct contact until later in the day.
“In this kind of business, you can’t afford to be closed for very long, and that was her biggest concern,” he said. “She talked about setting up shop somewhere temporarily, but I told her that she needed to think about a permanent location, because you never know how long it will take to fix the place or if will have to be torn down.
“You don’t know what tomorrow holds for you.”
Several family members and friends along with business acquaintances stepped forward and offered assistance, said both father and daughter, but a location that would allow for the salon to be immediately operational had yet to found.
Connell said that it was decided she and McLaughlin would return to her South Side home, where she had been located before moving to the West Apple Street shop, but the move would not be an easy one.
“(The former shop area) had become a weight room and a general place to store things,” she said. “But, we were going to make it work.”
The following Monday, Molinaro again entered St. Rita, still very concerned about his daughter’s plight and scribbled a message in a book often used by parishioners to inscribe their prayers and thanksgivings.
“I wrote in there, ‘Please help Karen find a new location,’ and then took the book to the altar,” said Molinaro.
Shortly after he arrived home, Connell called to tell him that she had received a telephone call from Valerie Rumbaugh to offer a suitable location, along North Pittsburgh Street, that would allow the business to once again service its customers.
The following Wednesday, those that had missed their Saturday appointment were again having their hair coiffed by Connell and McLaughlin.
“It is a miracle,” said Connell.
Molinaro, meanwhile, said that he often writes prayer requests in the church book on behalf of family and friends suffering illness, facing surgeries or dealing with tragedy, but when a prayer is answered, he also takes the time to offer thanks.
“I have received answers to many of my prayers, but never this fast,” said Molinaro as he sat in his daughter’s new shop.
The investigation into the cause of the Sept. 16 fire, meanwhile, continues, said city police Chief Stephen Cooper. The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined.
The building, owned by Robert and Robin McLaughlin of Scottdale, also housed the business office of their commercial construction company and four apartments on the upper two floors of the three-story property.
Molinaro, meanwhile, speculated that the fire, although tragic, might translate into something good for his daughter.
“That’s how life is sometimes,” he said.