When she was just four years old, Jasmine Williams, from the city of Portland, Oregon, wanted to buy some of her mother’s jewelry.
So she took her mother shopping and found a jewelry store that she liked, and she said, “Why not?”
The store was called Jewelry Box.
She got her first piece for free, and the next day she was thrilled to have a piece for her.
“I didn’t really understand why people would spend money on that,” she says.
“My mom was so excited and she was really excited.”
When she asked for a bigger one, she got a bigger piece.
“It was so cool,” she laughs.
“So many different pieces, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I bought this.'”
The store, Jewelrybox, is still in business, but the family says that since Williams and her mother moved out of Portland in 2008, they’ve had to take the jewelry out of their house and make it available for others.
“People would walk in and just be like, you have to buy this,'” she says, adding that the store has changed their lives.
Jewelry box’s owner, Kiki Williams, tells the Toronto Star that JewelryBox is about keeping the family’s memories alive.
“They’re like our community.
We love them and they’re like the family we never knew,” she said.
“We’re like sisters.
They’re like family to us.
And that’s what Jewelryboxes is all about.”