Before the nightclub next door burned and water flooded their Ybor City cigar shop, the Ogando family was already dealing with a far greater tragedy.
Mayra Ogando, a co-owner of Nicahabana Cigars on Seventh Avenue, died of cancer at age 51 on April 5. A day later, the Amphitheatre nightclub caught fire. Firefighters doused the blaze for more than six hours.
A lot of that water poured into Nicahabana, ruining seven bundles of tobacco leaves worth $7,000 and shuttering the shop for three days.
But after watching the fire rage just beyond the store's eastern wall, the family expected far worse.
"She helped us out," Yordany Ogando said Wednesday of his late mother, convinced her spirit was watching over the business her family started in 2009.
Except for the Amphitheatre and its boarded up shell, the businesses on the 1600 block of Seventh, in the heart of Ybor, have returned to some sense of normalcy after the fire forced them to close. Read More>
No comments:
Post a Comment