When something that's been there for almost your entire life goes away, you feel it--even if you don't think you had much of a connection to it over the years.

But if that connection was there, it feels extra weird. And such was the case when I learned that Hallmark in Wesleyan Park Plaza is closing its doors for good.

Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
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Owner Sharon Westenhofer has decided that it's time to retire after 50 years in the greeting card business. She also owns Hallmark locations in Louisville (where she lives) and Melbourne, Florida.

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Westenhofer issued a release about the closing, and at the top of the page it says, "Live your Dash...what matters most of all was the dash between those years."

Throughout the release--which honestly reads more as a letter to friends, appropriately--she expresses the joy she has experienced with Hallmark over the years and explains the "dash" reference by saying:

"Life works in strange ways! We do not choose to be born. We do not choose to die nor do we choose the time. But within the realm of choicelessness: We do choose how we live. That is what the DASH is all about."

And now I get it: 1971-2021. There's the dash.

And that's a wrap on Hallmark, a Wesleyan Park Plaza fixture for five decades that was always there when I needed a quick trip to the post office. I live behind it for years and depended on that arm of the U.S. Postal Service quite frequently.

Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
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We wish Sharon many happy years of retirement. We also wish Hallmark shoppers many days of taking advantage of big sales.

It's expected that inventory from her Melbourne and Louisville stores will move to the Owensboro location as those stores close, meaning ours will be here the longest.

Why not? It's already been 50 years...and it feels like they "dashed" right by.

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