LAKEPORT — After more than 17 years of providing literary enjoyment to many, Catfish Books will be closing at the end of November.
Owner Lynn Fegan acquired the bookstore in 1994 after it changed hands numerous times. Fegan and her husband, Jack, had recently retired in Lakeport from the Los Angeles area at the time.
“When we did our first retirement, we just moved up here to our vacation home,” Fegan said.
Fegan, 67, is closing the store because she recently encountered health problems and said keeping the store open 6 days a week is too much for her.
“I came within literally a couple hours of dying,” Fegan said, recounting an incident in June. She said she is an ex-smoker with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and was afflicted with bronchitis at the time. She was spraying bug spray onto a swarm of earwigs on her porch.
“Basically my lungs said, ?We quit. We”re done with you. It”s over,”” she said. She spent a few days in the hospital recovering and is now on oxygen treatments. “My lungs are working at about a third their capacity or less,” she said. “I don”t have the stamina to do the work.”
After she got out of the hospital, Fegan said she began to see if anyone would be able to purchase the store and take it over. “There were several people very interested,” she said. She cautioned every interested party that the store was not necessarily a moneymaker.
“I had to be honest and say it”s going to require a lot of work, it”s going to require an influx of money to become profitable,” she said. “There were a couple of people who were considering it as a labor of love but I think, wisely, they decided against it.”
Fegan said she knows how much the store”s closing will impact the community. “We”re so ingrained in the community,” she said. Fegan has involved herself in many projects aimed at boosting reading in schools.
Stephanie Wayment, an English language development and English language arts specialist with the County Office of Education, said Fegan did a lot for the children of Lake County.
“Lynn is always there to lend a helping hand anytime that she”s asked,” Wayment said. “She always volunteers for Dr. Seuss celebrations that we have at the schools. She”ll go in, bring books, read to the kids and make the literature come alive.”
Fegan said she gave some teens their first jobs. Many of those teens, now grown up, are still very close with her.
“I”ve been fortunate in being a first job for them,” she said. “These kids are my family. In fact, when I almost died in the hospital, three of them had listed themselves on the bulletin board in my room as my grandchildren.”
She said many of her regulars at the bookstore have become more than just patrons. “It”s all customer service but there”s some point where these people stop being customers,” she said.
Many folks have communicated to Fegan how sad they are to see the bookstore close. “The outpouring of love and sadness that we”re leaving has been monumental,” she said. “Children have written me cards. I”ve always loved the store and everybody but I had no concept of how much I was loved back.”
Fegan said it hasn”t been easy adjusting to life after hear near-death moment. “I haven”t adjusted to my health limitations ?cause I”ve always been extraordinarily active,” she said.
But she is still in good spirits.
She said she is looking forward to attending many events that she was previously unable to go to because of her duties at the store, such as the Pear Festival, as well as being able to see her friends more.
As for the rest of her future, she looked forward to it with humor. “I may end up just sitting on a chair out in front in the parking lot waving at people like the Walmart greeter,” she said, and laughed. “Don”t put it past me. I”m capable of doing that.”
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
