The Glebe’s last corner store has closed
Photo: Dehou Xiao, long-time owner, along with his wife Baohua Chang, of the O’Connor Confectionary. The store, the last of its kind in the Glebe, closed in November.
Photo Credit: Peter Iswolsky
The Glebe’s last corner store has closed
By Jennie Aliman
The last remaining corner store in the Glebe, the O’Connor Confectionary, closed on November 30, more than three decades after Dehou Xiao and his wife, Baohua Chang, started running it.
Xiao came to Canada from China in 1989 after the events of Tiananmen Square. He had been a professor of electrical engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan. Once here, he got a job as a technician and was able to send for his wife and 16-year-old son. His wife Chang had been a statistician in China. In Canada, neither Xiao nor Chang were able to find employment in their fields, so they eventually took over the O’Connor Confectionary in 1994. Their son attended Glebe Collegiate and later the University of Ottawa, studying electrical engineering.
Xiao and Chang were in the store seven days a week from 7:30 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night, tending to the last-minute household needs of nearby Glebe residents – newspapers, cigarettes, milk, chips, lottery tickets, stamps and long-distance phone cards. They also took in laundry and cut keys. The work was hard, and the long hours were punishing.
Though the Glebe Annex still retains corner stores – Abbas Grocery and Hogan’s Food Store – the closure of the O’Connor Confectionary marks the end of an era in the Glebe.
In an article about the store in the Glebe Report in 2002, Chang talked about her feelings about Canada. “When we became citizens,” she said, “we lost our Chinese citizenship. So, Canada is our country now. We like it; it is a good country. People are very nice to me, and the Glebe is a good neighbourhood.” When asked if she missed China, she replied, “Well, both my husband and I have family there – sisters, brothers and other family. And we have not been able to go back. I liked China.” The article’s author notes: “And a tiny tear rolled down her cheek.” (The story by Boyce Richardson appeared in the November 8, 2002 of the Glebe Report and can be read in the archives – click on Past Issues at the bottom of the glebereport.ca website).
I asked Dehou to share some memories of his time at O’Connor Confectionary.
“One night in 2019, it was very cold at 9:30 p.m. when I was closing the store. I warmed my old car. I closed my car door by mistake. I had another key in my Kanata home. It was too late to rent a car. So, I went to [a Glebe neighbour] Peter’s home to ask for help. Without any hesitation, he gave his car keys to me. So, I drove his car to my home. I sent a carton of cigarettes for his help. He said, ‘No, we are good friends, you do not need to do this.’ I will always remember that.”
“Every year I received a bottle of wine from [customers] Kim, Anthony and Robin’s family. This year they did the same. So, every year before Christmas, my wife Baohua asks me to buy a gift for them.”
Asked what he would do now that he is retired, Dehou said, “I do not have any plans right now for my retirement. Maybe play Chinese chess or do some garden work with my wife.”
Thank you, Dehou and Baohua, for running our corner store for so many years. Newspapers (including the Glebe Report!), last-minute ingredients, popsicles on a hot day and penny candy for the kids – we will all miss you.
Jennie Aliman lives five doors down from The O’Connor Confectionary and has been shopping there for 38 years.