Strolling into The Prologue, a visitor house within the Three Tales Inn in St. Augustine, Florida, appears like strolling via a novel. Books of each attainable style are in all places: on the cabinets, counter tops and cocktail tables.
“We function totally different authors each month,” inn creator and proprietor Marie Milton says, as she welcomes me into the suite’s well-stocked kitchen, which features a few cookbooks by the range. Within the eating room, a wallpaper depicting a fantasy forest and matching hand-painted chairs assist full the immersive wonderland feeling. Fittingly, the inn’s three residences are known as The Foreword, The Prologue and The Epilogue, every seamlessly mixing classic attraction with fashionable glamour, plus a pinch of serenity and magic.
The story behind the storybook inn
Milton created her unconventional inn as a tribute to her late mom, whose stage 4 abdomen most cancers left her solely months to reside. But, she proved docs mistaken, beating the chances for eight extra years. “My mother was an immigrant from South Korea,” Milton shares. She “stood 4 ft, 10 inches tall, and she or he was 70 kilos of full, arduous and sensational grit,” Milton says. “She wished to remain alive so long as she might, to be right here for her youngsters and her grandkids. Her oncologist was at all times shocked that she made it so far as she did.”
There was no normal remedy for such a late-stage most cancers, so Milton’s mom joined medical trials. For a number of years, mom and daughter commonly traveled from St. Augustine to Houston, the place the remedies had been administered. “We traveled out of state one to 2 occasions a month,” Milton says. Frequent journey like this may put on out even a wholesome individual, not to mention a frail girl present process chemo.
To get via, Milton’s mother imagined the 2 of them had been happening an actual journey. “Chemo makes you are feeling like shit, so I think about like we’re happening an enormous journey on a regular basis, simply mom and daughter. Wouldn’t that be enjoyable?” Milton says her mom used to say.
Studying to reside within the second
Milton, who was a nurse elevating two little boys along with her husband who was nonetheless in class, along with being her mom’s sole caregiver, discovered to maneuver quick to get issues finished. Plus, whereas she traveled she was taking graduate programs on-line to advance her nursing profession, so being quick and environment friendly was the one solution to accomplish the whole lot she needed to do in a given day. Touring along with her mom modified her, although, with one explicit second that caught along with her eternally.
Milton was serving to her mom accept one more spherical of chemo, as soon as once more speeding round, when her mom stated, “Jeez, you at all times transfer so quick. Decelerate. Take your time.” And whereas she didn’t explicitly say to cherish the moments we spend collectively, Milton realized she meant precisely that.
“My mother in all probability felt just like the clock was ticking sooner than she wished, and by me shifting quick, I didn’t wish to make it seem to be the world was shifting quick for her both,” Milton says. So from that second on, she began to decelerate.
“I made essentially the most of our resort journeys, stopping alongside the best way for the attractive skies, taking within the wide-open skies of Texas, with my little mama by my aspect,” she says. “The clock stood nonetheless for us, and we had been in our world, mom and daughter, residing, being ever so and eternally current.” The 2 went on to create the tales of their travels and kind reminiscences that might final lengthy after one among them was gone.
Earlier than she departed, Milton’s mom noticed her daughter graduate with a grasp’s diploma in nursing and celebrated her acceptance into the doctorate program. However then, the eight years of chemo lastly took their toll, and her well being worsened. “We made the many of the two-and-a-half months that she had left with us,” Milton shares. They celebrated her mom’s final birthday at age 66. “We took our time and cherished one another, and time in some way, even then, stood nonetheless.”
The Three Tales Inn is born
Throughout their resort stays, Milton typically thought how useful it might be if there have been locations that supplied in a single day lodging to sufferers. Utilizing her graduate college coaching, she put collectively a enterprise proposal for such a spot and, to her shock, gained some funding. However then the pandemic occurred, which modified affected person care, and she or he needed to change gears.
“I pivoted the marketing strategy from not sufferers [but] to necessary life occasions like household reunions, anniversaries [and] weddings,” she says. She now knew higher than anybody how fleeting these valuable moments could possibly be. She knew how necessary it was to make time stand nonetheless—and savor these moments.
Three Tales Inn grew out of that pivot, with the aim of giving company a solution to cease time lengthy sufficient to get pleasure from spending it with these they love. “I went from the hospital to hospitality,” Milton quips, including that the 2 ideas are shut as a result of each concentrate on individuals and connections. “Though this was totally different from the unique marketing strategy with sufferers, it didn’t imply it was much less significant.”
Milton was considerate in choosing the right property for her inn. She selected a historic constructing that was as soon as dwelling to Thomas Jefferson’s great-granddaughter, Maria Jefferson Eppes Shine. She reworked it with utmost consideration to the main points, ensuring the fantasy wallpaper matched the artfully carved furnishings and plush throws. Even the wine coasters quote well-known authors, placing one in a pensive temper. “There are moments once I want I might roll again the clock and take all this unhappiness away, however I’ve the sensation that if I did, the enjoyment could be gone as effectively,” reads one by Nicholas Sparks, creator of A Stroll to Keep in mind.
A literary ardour venture realized
Milton crammed the residences with magnificence and books to encourage the company to create their very own narratives in an nearly magical setting. Whether or not novels or photograph albums, books inform tales, inspiring company to create their very own. Charmed by the idea, an area chef partnered along with her, making a fantastic French restaurant on the bottom ground, fittingly named La Nouvelle, a French phrase that describes a brief work of fiction identified in English as a novella.
“The thought of a storybook place was created to tug vacationers away from the hustle and bustle of life, go away their cares behind and create intentional and significant tales of their very own,” Milton says. Quickly, she welcomed company celebrating all types of distinctive moments, from marriage ceremony anniversaries to divorce to toasting to sobriety.
“Touring with my mother, I discovered that the time we spend exploring the world with our family members is priceless, and the reminiscences we make are irreplaceable,” Milton says. “I would like my company, a lot of whom are mother-daughters or BFFs or {couples}, to make reminiscences they are going to always remember. Our lives are just too brief to not achieve this. If there’s one factor my mom taught me, it’s that.”
Photograph by Lina Zeldovich
