Mommy Life: Mrs. Grossman, the Sticker Lady

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September 23, 2005 2:25 PM

Mrs. Grossman, the Sticker Lady

When I moved from San Francisco to San Rafael in 1980, it was a smallish-on-the-way-to-medium town with one main street about six blocks long with a really old Macy's, an old-fashoined movie theater, a couple of jewelry stores and bookstores, and a few banks and restaurants. The downtown area was permeated by the smell of roasting coffee from Graffeo's coffee sellers, which my daughter Jasmine blogged about once upon a time.

But the spot that was most important to my girls - Samantha then 11 and Jasmine 6 - was Papyrus. I was pretty fond of it myself. Way ahead of its time, Papyrus sold beautful paper, unusual cards, and exquisite writing supplies. But what the girls loved was Stickers by the Yard - a display of big, fat rolls of stickers with a pair of scissors hanging on a chain.

stickers by the yard.jpg

Samantha would often walk to Fourth Street, clutching her savings and come home clutching a small roll of stickers.
Nowadays, stickers are everywhere, but 1980 was the first time they were introduced for popular consumption like that. I feel like I lived a little piece of history to see the very first ones, which were invented by a woman also from Marin County - Mrs. Grossman.

Little did I know that ten years later, after marrying Tripp and becoming a Christian, I would meet Mrs. Grossman - who'd become a Christian too and went to the same church (No, not the weird one, the nice one we went to first).

In 1995, when I became a writer, Mrs. Grossman agreed to sit down with me to tell the story of how she became a Christian:

Hearts For Keeps by Andrea Grossman, as told to Barbara Curtis
Feeling small and very alone, I sat on the edge of the hotel bed, a Gideon Bible in my hands. For the first time in twenty-five years, I had no husband to turn to. Just yesterday John had asked me to take a walk with him – we never took walks! – then given me his notice.

"We haven't been talking much lately, Andrea. Our marriage has changed." His voice sounded strangely far away. "I've fallen in love with someone else."

Years of success building a nationally recognized business had not prepared me for this moment. The words made me dizzy and lightheaded, like I was going to faint. John caught me and helped me back home.

It was 1984. We had flown to Los Angeles to meet with our business adviser, Calvin Goodman, who for the past four years had wisely established the course of our company. Turning to him in this personal crisis seemed only natural. Calvin suggested a two-week separation to think things over. I hoped my husband would come to his senses. John flew back to the new woman in his life.

I had checked into this hotel – alone with a breaking heart and a thousand questions. What had gone wrong? When had it started? How could so much have changed in the twenty-five years since two artists had fallen in love and married?

John and I had met in 1955 while working for an art studio in San Francisco. We married four years later and enjoyed success as freelance artists for the next five. In 1964, our son Jason was born. Until he was in fourth grade, being a mom was my first priority.

But the creative artist never left me. In 1975 I came across some old seed catalogues, vintage 1893. Using pale photographed images from their pages, I designed a line of writing paper, notepads, and gift wrap. That was the beginning of Mrs. Grossman's Paper Company.

Choosing the company’s name was easy. I deliberately used Mrs. Instead of Ms. I was proud of my marriage and my husband. My business was secondary to my husband's art. I wasn't ambitious, just wanted to keep busy and earn a little extra income.

An extended visit - nine months - in Los Angeles changed all that. John, seeking advice on his own art career, had arranged a meeting with Calvin Goodman, author of The Art Marketing Handbook, and renowned business consultant. Calvin invited John to bring his wife along.

At the first meeting, I listened in awe for two hours to this man's brilliant advice. Finally, as John’s meeting was winding down, I worked up the courage to ask, "Do you ever help small paper companies?"

Calvin was interested enough in Mrs. Grossman's to give me one half-hour of John's weekly two-hour appointments. I was thrilled at the opportunity to learn from him.

But there was something even more exciting going on in my life – a rekindled relationship with the Lord. Although I could remember as a little girl attending Sunday School and bubbling over with love for Jesus, as an adult I had done very little to pursue the relationship. But the 1978 Christmas Eve service at Calvary Church in the Pacific Palisades reawakened my spiritual longing. I began attending each Sunday, to hear God's Word preached straight from the Bible by Pastor Howard Park. As much as I wanted to share this special time with John, he wasn't interested. He had gone with me only twice. Our spiritual differences may have been the beginning of the rift in our relationship. But at the time I was too happy to notice.

Driving back home from Los Angeles to Marin, an enormous rainbow filled the sky from one horizon to the other. I felt I was passing through a gate into a future bright with promise.

And I was.

Shortly after our return, a client pulled me aside in her stationery store in Sausalito, California. "I need something special for Valentine's Day," she said. "Can you get me some hearts people can stick on envelopes?"

That’s not my usual thing, I thought, but she was an important customer. So I designed a heart sticker, about an inch and a half across, shiny, plump, and vulnerable looking. I sent the order off to a local label printer, not knowing what to expect.

When I opened our first shipment of beautiful shiny red heart stickers, I was so excited! Instead of flat sheets of stickers, I was surprised to find them on rolls – 1000 of them per roll! Seeing my artwork transformed into stickers made me think, We've got something here! I slipped a roll on each wrist to show John, then ran off to phone Calvin.

Calvin and I thought this idea could turn into something very big if we were the first gift sticker designer on the market. Our goal was to have a display ready for the Long Beach gift show. We rushed to design and produce a whole line of stickers - ducks, teddy bears, lips, clouds, suns, stars, clouds, men in the moon, lightening, rainbows, and – of course – the vulnerable hearts. John was an enthusiastic part of the team, doing most of the design work.

In a stroke of marketing genius, Calvin made the most of the “providential packaging” insisting we offer a free Lucite rack with each six rolls of stickers purchased. Store owners could display the rolls attractively on the counter, along with a yardstick and a
pair of scissors.

Our “Stickers by the Yard” were the hit of the show. A month later, we headed to New York, where we enjoyed the same enthusiastic response.

Before long, all over the United States, children were collecting, trading, and filling albums with our stickers. Our simple colorful artwork was finding its way into schools, churches, hospitals, even prisons. Someone wrote to tell me she had even sent some to Mother Teresa!

For four years, we raced to keep up with the growth of Mrs. Grossman's from a one-and-a-half person operation to a company with more than a hundred employees and an ever-increasing demand. And at some point I had become so consumed by the demands of Mrs. Grossman's that I had neglected being Mrs. Grossman, the woman John had married.

No, I’m not an innocent victim, I thought in the hotel room, clutching the Gideon Bible a little tighter. Still I felt sorry for myself. And afraid of the future.

Who was I without John? What would become of the company? What about the name Mrs. Grossman?

Maybe this Bible can give me some answers, but where would I look? I let it fall open.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The words went straight to my heart.

I thought again of the rainbow I had seen coming home from Los Angeles. God had been so
close then. But since coming home, I had never gone back to church. John wasn't interested, so I had decided not to make an issue of it. In my desire not to offend my husband, I completely lost sight of my relationship with God.

My problem was bigger than neglecting my husband, and the price I was paying was greater than losing him.

I cried all night in that hotel room - not just for losing John but for losing sight of my Heavenly Father. God had promised me a bright future. Through Mrs.Grossman's Paper Company, he had fulfilled his promise, giving me a chance to bring happiness into peoples' lives with my stickers.

Now I realized I needed to make some promises of my own to him. "God, you will always be first in my heart," I prayed.

The next couple years weren’t easy. Even though God had reordered my priorities, it was too late for my marriage. John wasn't interested in counseling - he wanted a divorce.

In spite of the emotional fallout, Mrs. Grossman's continued to prosper. Today [1998], our 105 employees produce 5,000 miles of stickers a year, with 340 current designs, adding about 60 designes each year.

Since that prayer in a lonely hotel room thirteen years ago, I have kept my promise to God. I am active in my church and serious about daily prayer and devotions. And I ask God to come with me every day when I walk in the doors of Mrs. Grossman's. Every decision concerning a policy, a supplier, a client, or an employee is made striving to be pleasing to God. My number one financial principle is to trust God completely. He’s in charge here.

Our company’s headquarters is marked by a heart flag flying outside. God is really the heart of Mrs. Grossman’s. And Mrs. Grossman's heart – still vulnerable, but through God's handiwork now mended and whole - is His to keep!