While the message to stay-at-home and keep social distance has been stressed, longtime customers and friends of Pablo Solis, owner of Jim’s Western Wear in San Fernando, still took a moment to go to the store and acknowledge his passing.
Like most businesses at this time, the store is closed; but people paid their respects by taking a moment to chat on the sidewalk with others who were there to do the same thing. They placed flowers, photos and wrote messages of appreciation on the posters that have been set up at the front of the store.
Jim’s Western Wear and the Solis family have been part of the fabric of the San Fernando community for decades. Pablo’s wife, Margarita Solis, has worked for the City of San Fernando for many years.
Pablo started working at the store at the age of 15, and amazingly, Jim’s Western Wear was his first job and only job. With a strong work ethic, a noted smile and his kindness for customers, he literally climbed the store’s ladders and went from working at the store as a teenager to later managing the store, to becoming the owner of the store.
Many customers posted their memories of Solis on the San Fernando Valley Sun’s Facebook page, recalling his “contagious smile and kindness.”
“You are a role model and an icon to many entrepreneurs. The San Fernando Mall and the entire community will miss you,” wrote Josie Ramos.
Solis is said to have appreciated “every day, every minute and every customer.” He is also noted not only for being a businessman, but a family man.