Wayne Sessoms has sold and repaired his share of jewelry in 53 years, the past 23 here in the little red brick building along Highland Avenue on Haymount Hill.
He has a personable and welcoming way.
“He’s caring,” Luz Rosi said Thursday as she admired the old ring on her finger that Sessoms repaired to look like new. “He’s thoughtful. He’s compassionate. Oh, my gosh, he does awesome work.”
She looked at the ring on her finger and beamed with pride.
“He took my platinum setting, and he turned it into yellow gold,” Rosi said. “There are just details with a woman and her jewelry, and Wayne is the captain to that.”
Dorothy McNeill dropped by to pick up her wedding ring that Sessoms repaired.
“It was broken,” she said.
She showed it off like a new bride.
Sessoms, no doubt, is more than a jeweler to his customers.
“He’s one of the most wonderful persons I ever met,” McNeill said. “I feel good about it that I was here for one of the last days before he retires.”
Lisa Thompson was there, too.
“I just came by to give him a hug,” said Thompson, who has known Sessoms most of her life. “I will just miss knowing he is here.”
‘It’s bittersweet’
Wayne Sessoms knew this week was coming to close his Gold and Diamond Service Center, a decision he discussed with his wife, Nikki, some seven months ago.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “Business is as good as anybody could ever ask for.”
But Sessoms says it’s the right time to call it a career and enjoy life on the North Carolina coast at Oak Island with his wife and Bella, their cocker spaniel with the sweet disposition.
“I’m going to try to slow down a little bit,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy some good food, make new friends, fish and play a little golf.”
He has a new rod and reel, a parting gift from a friend.
“I’m going to spend time surf fishing,” Sessoms said. “You don’t have to catch fish. You just go surf fishing because.”
A business motto to live by
Wayne Sessoms is Fayetteville born and bred, one of two sons born to the late Fleet Rose Sessoms, a city police officer and firefighter, and the late Helen Christine Seward Sessoms, a homemaker. He grew up off Bragg Boulevard in the Cumberland Heights neighborhood near old Belvedere Elementary School, what today is Margaret Willis Elementary School. He graduated in 1969 from the first class of Terry Sanford High School. Sessoms enrolled at Fayetteville Technical Community College for a brief time, but he was a young man with romance and business on his mind.
Sessoms credits his father-in-law, Nick Dorroll, who was an East Coast district manager for The Jewel Box for what would lead Sessoms to his long career in the jewelry trade in his hometown.
Sessoms has been a jeweler with a simple motto — engage with your customers and be honest, upfront and fair.
“You don’t have to take people to the cleaners,” he said. “Just be fair to them.”
Wayne Sessoms is the familiar goldsmith and silversmith with the head-visor magnifiers who has greeted customers with that pleasant way. One meeting with Wayne Sessoms, and you’ll feel like he’s known you all your life. You’ll feel as if you have known him all your life, too.
Epilogue
Friday was the last day of business before Sessoms turns over the shop to a new owner on Monday.
“I will miss the people more than anything,” he said. “I’ve had good days. I’ve had bad days. But more good days than bad days. I don’t know how I’m going to feel. I don’t know if it’s going to be an emotional type feeling. When you’re closing, you’re afraid of what is your new future going to be like. Here, I know what my future is. It’s just something of a fear factor. It’s all playing around in your head.”
Sessoms did acknowledge there could be a tear in his eye when locking the front door one last time.
“I just think it’s a chapter in our life,” Wayne Sessoms said. “It’s not the end. It’s the beginning of a new story.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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Mr Bill Kirby
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