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Since she announced on social media that she will be closing the store, customers have been sharing their memories of her parents and what Aziz & Company means to them.

“They’re sharing these stories and so many of them will say ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry to tell you (this)’,” Zain said.

“But (I say) don’t be sorry because when you tell me that you’re heartbroken that I’m closing the store you’re telling me that my mother did something incredible.”

Zain’s father’s health began to deteriorate in the mid-nineties and when suffered a heart-attack.But even with serious health issues, the family could not keep him away from the store. As his condition worsened he would still ask to be taken to the store in a wheelchair, Zain’s sister, Jasmine Aziz, recalled.

“It doesn’t matter how ill he was he needed to be here so I brought him in a wheelchair,” she said.

“He sat here and he just wanted to listen to customers and look at people and fall asleep.”

Zain moved back to Ottawa from Toronto in 1996 to help care for her father in his final days. He died in April 1998.

Cooper was one of Aziz & Company’s regular customers and lived around the corner from the store and began spending more time at the store and with Zain.

“My dad was really sick and he was dying. It was not a great time but he was the bright point in my day,” Zain said.

“When my dad did pass away I was 28. Nobody was there for me when my dad passed away like he was.”

Throughout the years the store has been a place for family, friendship and love, even through grief and hardships, the store itself is like a family member, Zain said.

“It breaks my heart to close this place but she started it with us in mind, and I want to close it with her in mind. ” Zain said.

“I want to sit down with my mother and take out a map of Canada and take out a map of the Caribbean and say ‘where do you want to go?’.”

oblackmore@postmedia.com

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