Jan, of Jan's Thrift Shop, loved her community

Aside from her own, there has only ever been one home that Susan Hacker can walk in at any time of day without calling ahead of time: that was the home of Jan and Mark Hansen.

She drove in disbelief to the Hansen home last Monday, after she was notified by phone that Jan died the night before following some health complications. The house was empty. Jan had died at age 73.

Hacker knew Jan and Mark, who called Hacker their “second daughter,” through her childhood friend and Jan’s daughter, Erin Olson, formerly Erin Hansen.

Olson also made the trip to her mom’s house early last week, flying in from Santa Barbara, California.

“The first night I slept in her bed, I just said ‘Thank you,’ and told her how proud of her I was,” Olson said. “The legacy that she left and is showing me, just I’m so proud of her. And just thankful for all the love and laughter and a million other things.”

Jan’s death comes just four years after Mark’s death, marking the end of an era for the family-owned thrift shop that was open for 50 years in Faribault.

“It was so amazing being part of this big, powerful, beautiful family legacy,” Olson said. “They all were so loving and humble and hard-working.”

Jan and Mark were the owners of Jan’s Thrift Shop, which Olson said began in 1967 as a series of garage sales being run by Jan’s mother, Lorraine Shevlin. Jan’s sister, Marilyn “Punky” Morris, said that became a permanent garage sale out of the basement.

“(Lorraine) wanted to work outside the home,” Morris said. “But my dad said ‘no’; he was old-school. And so she figured out a way to work and be home. So it started in a basement of the house on the corner two blocks up from (present day) Jan’s Thrift Shop.”

It wasn’t long before the makeshift store outgrew the basement and took over the machine shed, and then a pole barn.

In 1992, the heads of the Shevlin household retired early and Jan, their oldest daughter took over. Morris said Jan “modernized” the shop and brought it into a new building next door and renamed it to Jan’s Thrift Shop.

Olson and Morris said the store was “a ministry” for both Lorraine and Jan. They said the shop was often a first stop for immigrants families arriving in town.

“(Jan) really helped a lot of people in the community with getting them set up, giving them things that they could, you know, start setting up a starter apartment,” Morris said.

Olson said they always worked with the families, even if they didn’t have enough money for everything they needed.

Olson spent last week at her mom’s house, notifying customers of Jan’s death when they pulled into the store’s parking lot. She said one woman drove from out of state just to visit the shop on Friday.

“I said ‘It’s too bad,’” she recalled. “’You missed a real gem, a landmark, a really special place.’”

Olson wasn’t blood-related to Jan. She was adopted after her then-16-year-old biological mother, Laura Ziebarth, of Zimmerman, chose the Hansens.

“I didn’t know their names or where they lived, but they were kind of like what I hoped I would be at their age,” Ziebarth recalled. “Just based on what they had written, I was like ‘These are good people. I’m only 16, so I can’t do this.’ And they just sounded like the perfect people in the perfect place.”

Olson is grateful for the difficult decision Ziebarth made.

“I’ve told her so many times too: ‘Like, man, you picked the best for me,’” Olson said. “I am just so blessed to have been, you know, part of all this. I’ve had such an amazing woman to show me how to be the best. She wanted the best for everybody.”

Jan was heavily involved in the community, including serving on the Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism board of directors. Her family said she started the Hot Air Balloon Rally held for a number of years in Faribault.

“Her community involvement and the things that she put her heart into — she has forever changed Faribault,” Olson said. “I can’t even count or remember the number of times I was drug around as a kid to every board. I mean, she was on stuff all the time and she loved it, you know. She just loved the community.”

Hacker, who now owns a store of her own, Lily of the Valley, said Jan was always there for her, including stopping in to take care of her baby when she was starting out.

“She was always so supportive; knowing what starting a business is like and being a mom.”

Closing down

After Jan’s health began to decline, she began selling her inventory and preparing to shut the store down.

“I’m so proud of her and I’m so happy that she went out like the boss, powerful woman she is,” Olson said. “She closed her business down the way she wanted and she got to stay at home and pass at home, five feet away from where her husband passed four years ago. She just did it her way. And I’m happy for her.”

Jan will be remembered at a memorial mass at 11 a.m. Thursday at Divine Mercy Catholic Church in Faribault and an interment on Friday. Then the family plans to hold one final sale — an estate sale.

“It’s just kind of cool that we’re able to exit that out the way Jan did it,” Hacker said. “You know, having people here, getting rid of her stuff here, it’s kind of cool. It started here and ended here.”