A Lakewood landmark is closing. "It's time," says Carol Steers, the 86-year-old owner of Mesa Imports, which has been doing business in the area for 35 years. Her store, located at Quail St. just off Colfax (next to King Soopers), is filled to the rafters with one-of-a-kind items she has acquired on one of her many buying trips. "My shop is a world tour under one roof," she says.

After her marriage ended in 1974, Steers needed a way to make a living and figured no one would hire a 50-year-old woman who had never worked outside the home. When her daughter, who was living in Guatemala, sent back a few colorful, woven and embroidered, handmade shirts, Carol discovered that people couldn't get enough of them. She expanded her stock and, with $3000 to invest, opened up a storefront at 20 th & Youngfield. Why there? Because that's where her three kids got off the school bus. She moved to her current location 20 years ago.

Steers has been working seven days a week ever since, but considers herself blessed that she found a career that was fun and was well-received. What will she miss? Her faithful customers--some of whom still remember the old location and now come in with walkers and canes, buying trips to her favorite destinations like Guatemala and Indonesia, the friends she has made at trade shows on the west coast, and her staff--the newest of whom has been with her for 18 years.

After she closes up for the last time, which she estimates to be shortly before Christmas, she wants to travel, do volunteer work, and probably keep selling imported goods at home parties. "People are saying they're so sad to see it go," she says. "Some men have said to me, 'Where am I going to go for presents for my wife if you're not here?'" With a characteristic twinkle in her eye, she concludes, "If I could take compliments to the bank, I'd be very well off."