When Janet McCartney Grimmett was pulled out of the burning wreckage of an airplane crash in Texas in 2001, she knew it was time to change her life.
“I decided to live my dream and do something I was passionate about,” she said. “The main thing is I’m having fun doing it and I’ve met so many people who inspire me to keep going.”
Grimmett decided to open the store Lucky Junque in a staple location in Toano, known among locals as “the big yellow chair” store, she said, because of the large, wooden chair in front of the farmhouse. As a native of Toano, Grimmett said she recalls that big yellow chair all the way back to her childhood.
About nine months ago, Grimmett moved into the space that had housed Chestnutt Bay Furnishings and decided to open her own antique, salvage and home decor boutique.
Grimmett has always been interested in antiques ever since her father owned his own farmhouse antique store where Premium Outlets is currently located. She became particularly interested in salvage after her plane crash and she decided to open up the idea of refurbishing those industrial items to the community she called home.
“I’ve really enjoyed being back home a reconnecting with folks I’ve known all of my life,” she said. “My mom is buried right there at Olive Branch [Christian Church] and my father’s family is at Hickory Neck [Episcopal Church] and I’m right in the middle. So I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be.”
Just before the crash, Grimmett had been sitting on the right side of a private airplane when it ran out of fuel at 9,000 feet in the air. When the pilot tried to land on a strip of road, the tail of the plane caught on electrical wire and flipped onto its right side where Grimmett and a friend were sitting, she said.
While no one died from the incident, Grimmett was permanently paralyzed on half of her body. The injury made it difficult when she started to redo the farmhouse.
She said she did most of the work during the day when her friends and family were at work and so she would balance herself against the furniture or sometimes scoot across the floor to get the job done.
“Not everything is accessible,” she said. “But if you have determination, you can do it.”
But after months of hard work, she was able to open Lucky Junque, named for her survival, and she said she has never been more proud. The rooms of her farmhouse are filled with unique items that need love and attention and each day she finds new homes for them with welcoming families.
“I tell people, this isn’t a store, it’s a shop,” she said. “I’m a people person so I don’t have customers, I have friends.”
Grimmett said she provides smiles and hugs to most of the people that enter her shop because now she knows who she is and what she’s supposed to be doing—and that’s connecting with others.
One new way she plans to do this is with the first Spring Vintage Market in Toano. On April 27, Grimmett will open up her land and space to a number of vendors, food trucks and classic car owners.
She hopes that will become an annual event that will help with the revitalization of the Toano community.
“I think us banding together to promote Toano is great,” she said. “We have something really special here and I think people want to preserve our history.”
Part of the event will be a silent auction with items donated by local businesses. The proceeds from the auction will benefit the Toano Historical Society and the James City-Bruton Volunteer Fire Department.
“One time a firefighter saved my life and pulled me out of an airplane wreckage,” she said. “And because of that I got to come back home to Toano. I want to celebrate that.”
