Long-time Portage business closes doors

Just hours away from retirement this past Tuesday, Blake Sharbell still wasn't sure how he was going to handle all the free time. The 63-year-old had worked in the Sharbell family store in Portage since he was 12 and has been helping to run it since he was 15. "I liked working with the people," he said. His older sister, Colleen Sharbell, offered him some words of encouragement: "I thought I would hate retirement and I love it." Still, it's going to be quite the change for a man who has logged up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, at the store. And it's going to be quite the change for the community, too. For the first time in 112 years the Sharbell family is no longer doing business in Portage. Blake's grandfather, Khalil, launched the Sharbell era. He got his start in business soon after emigrating from Lebanon in 1891. Settling in Cascumpec, he travelled door-to-door selling small items from his pack. Six years later he set up home and shop beside the tracks in Portage. Sons Elmer and then Edward would eventually take the reins of the family business, and all eight of Edward's children spent time working in the store. Blake and Dale Sharbell ran the store under the watchful eye of their father since they were in their teens. Edward Sharbell Sr. died in 2001 and Dale Sharbell died in 2002, leaving Blake to run the operation alone. There were busy times in Portage and the Sharbells were involved in many of them, including running a hotel, funeral home, canteen, stationhouse, fishmart, car sales and other services. "He never took time off; he was always there," Christine Sharbell-Smith said of her brother's dedication to the business. "My father was the same way; he was there all the time, and my mother, too, when we were kids. My mother was there every day even with all of us kids at home." Brother Edward Jr. and mother Ruby still reside in Portage. Blake is taking an apartment in Charlottetown. Fuel pumps were part of the operation from 1945 until 2005. Problems with his legs made it difficult for Blake to keep the pumps but Christine acknowledges the loss of the tanks took away a reason for customers to stop. The store and property are for sale. "We're really hoping somebody will buy it and start a business there, because it's sad, in a way. There's nothing there now, and it used to be a really busy spot," said Sharbell-Smith.