Chris Williard

"Overall, Market Days, is plain and simply a lot of fun," said Chris Willard, owner of La Belle Maison.

Willard said business owners showcase items on their sidewalk.La Belle Maison, an interior decorating and gift shop, often features samples of the gourmet foods sold there.

"It's a great opportunity for everybody to come by and taste things," she said.

Chris Williard, owner of the La Belle Maison store in the Market Square, is scheduled to undergo surgery later this month for an ailing heart.Williard was overwhlemed with the outpouring of support from the community when she suffered a heart attack Oct. 28.

Chris Williard has learned over the past few months what it means to be part of a small, warm community.

When she had a heart attack Oct. 28, she had no idea of the kind of support she would receive -- in the form of calls and visits, food and even people volunteering to help out at her store.

Williard is the owner of La Belle Maison, a home decor boutique and gift shop at Market Square, but she doesn't live in the community.

"I had not had social relationships with these people," Williard said recently.
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Williard said the shop has become a place where residents frequently stop in just to talk.

Some of those women are members of the New Albany Women's Network.NAWN has a system in place to provide meals to residents who have health problems or after a death in the family.Mott said she was receiving four-course meals at the store for Williard.

"A lot of it was NAWN, but there also were people outside the network helping," Williard said."The support system was just phenomenal."

Even local children started prayer chains for Williard.
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Mott said many of the people who asked about Chris also were able to share advice from personal experience.
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"I think it really hit home," Williard said."I'm about the same age as the majority of my customers."

Williard, who is of slight build and appears to be in good shape, was shocked Oct. 28 when she began having pains in her chest.She had just awakened her daughter for school and went back to lie down.

"I had this crushing pain in my chest," she said."It was unbelievable.It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest."

The pain radiated down her left arm, and Williard, who has a nursing degree, immediately knew what it was.Luckily, her husband was home.He is a doctor and he rushed his wife to the hospital.

"At that point I was hysterical," she said."It was very, very scary."

At the hospital, Williard was found to have a congenital defect called a patent foramen ovale, or a hole in the heart.A clot slipped through the hole and caused a heart attack, she said.

It is something that can happen to someone who appears to be perfectly healthy, she said.

Williard was in the hospital for six days.She is taking therapy now and is scheduled for surgery to repair the defect on Feb. 27.

People already are asking her what she will need during her next stay in the hospital.

"You see the beautiful homes in New Albany and that's part of it," Williard said.

La Belle Maison's owner, Chris Williard, believes the tree helped her store earn a first place for its display in the home interior section of the show, held Nov. 8 to 10 at the Columbus Convention Center.

"In my mind's eye, it made perfect sense," Williard said of the tree, which now is on display in the store the Market Square shopping center.

Williard said having the widest part of the tree at the top helped showcase her snowmen and other ornaments better because of the way the ornaments hang on the tree."It was a fun kind of show," Williard added.

La Belle Maison's display also included a faux wall with a fireplace.