When Ellie Adolphson approached Scollard’s Dry Cleaning on the South Hill recently, she couldn’t find a place to park.

“Customers were streaming into the store,” Adolphson said.

It wasn’t a grand opening or special discount day. It was store manager Laurel Carey’s last day on the job.

Carey, 55, managed the Southside store for seven years, and she developed strong bonds with her customers.

“This is such a terrific neighborhood,” said Carey, a longtime Spokane Valley resident. “There are so many established families and loyal customers here. When I came, I wanted to cultivate the old storefront mentality where customers would come and see their friends and stay and visit awhile.”

And that’s just what Carey did. Within a month, she knew most of her customers’ names. Her warm smile, cheerful attitude and engaging personality endeared her to the regulars who dropped off their cleaning each week.

When she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in May 2004, co-workers and customers embarked on the journey with her.

Fellow employee Anna Dunn said, “We watched Laurel lose her hair, and we watched it grow back. She’s been such a spiritual inspiration in dealing with her cancer. Her faith in God really has carried her through.”

Following surgery and chemotherapy, Carey was given a clean bill of health. Unfortunately, a CT scan in September 2005 revealed cancer that had metastasized to her lungs, and the prognosis wasn’t good.

“Once I came to grips with having cancer, I hoped I’d have an impact on my customers,” Carey said.

If the cards, flowers and gifts that flowed in on her last day at work are any indication, her impact has been profound.

“My customers have shared my cancer walk with me,” she said. “They tell me they’re thinking of me and praying for me.”

The decision to leave the job she loved was a difficult one for Carey. She stayed on the job while undergoing two clinical studies and many types of chemotherapy.

Scollard’s manager, Carla Scott, said, “It’s amazing that someone going through cancer would continue to work and do such a good job.”

But recently, Carey got some sobering news from her oncologist.

“I was telling my doctor about a trip my husband and I planned to take next year,” she said. Her doctor looked at her and said, “If you could, I really recommend that you go this year. I don’t know that you’ll be well enough to go next year.”

Like a spinning kaleidoscope whose pieces suddenly fall into place, things became clear to Carey.

“It hit me when I walked away from her office that I really don’t have all the time in the world,” she said. “I’m ready to go home and be with the Lord.”

But Carey still has things she’d like to do.

The mother of two grown children says she would “like to make a quilt for my son and finish some sewing for my daughter. I want to work on an ancestral scrapbook and a family memories journal.”

And she’d like to take that longed-for trip with her husband, Michael.

So Carey gave notice to her employer, and word spread that she would retire soon.

On Carey’s last day, fellow employee Dunn set up a table with coffee, tea and cookies and unfurled a huge banner. And scores of customers came to say goodbye.

Many hugs were exchanged, and Carey laughed a lot and shed a few tears.

She wasn’t the only one.

“We try to treat our customers like family,” Dunn said. “On this day, it was the other way around.”