Thankful in Ardmore for ‘living small in a safe place’ during the pandemic

Nancy Gold plans to resume hosting her mah-jongg group in May, now that she and other players have had two doses of coronavirus vaccine. The friends will gather around the kitchen table in Gold’s cozy two-bedroom apartment.

Gold lives on the first floor and rents out the second of the duplex she owns in Ardmore. The enclosed porch has been converted to a workspace for her 43-year-old business, the King’s Collar Custom Shirtmakers.

For the last year, she has been carefully COVID-19 compliant. Just one customer at a time has perused fabric samples sitting on the sofa in her workspace or on green lawn chairs outside on the front patio or the new rear patio. Gold does the designing and measuring for her custom shirts, which are made by a factory in New Jersey.

She gives praise for the new rear patio, as well as for her recently remodeled gray-and-white bathroom, to her longtime contractor, John Gregory of John B. Gregory & Sons in Drexel Hill. He is responsible for all the wiring, plumbing, and construction in the duplex, she said, including installing a small gas stove in the living room and remodeling the red-and-white kitchen with a mirrored backsplash.

Gold has placed mirrors throughout her apartment to reflect light and give the illusion of space. And, she said, from the long mirror in the hall, “I can see both my back and front doors.”

Also, for optimal light and privacy, Gold applied textured film to the windows in her first floor lair, giving them the appearance of frosted glass.

Gold is surrounded by color. The hall is painted sunflower yellow. Living room walls are red, and an accent wall in the white main bedroom is turquoise. Bright framed art, mostly art-deco style paintings of people, hang from floor to ceiling. “It was a challenge finding a place for all the pictures,” Gold admits. A three-foot red Buddha, which belonged to her mother, Gloria, guards a door.

“I live colorfully,” Gold said, “but dress conservatively.” She does accessorize with multihued scarves draped over an armoire in the main bedroom. The queen-sized bed is good for folding shirts, she said, but she sleeps on the narrow bed in the beige guest room.

“Since COVID,” she said, “I like the comfort of the smaller room.”

Gold, 80, has used lessons of a lifetime to find joy during the pandemic. She has weathered business downturns, three divorces, a medical scare, and the death of one of her five children. She has published two books about her life and continues to find it cathartic to write.

A neon sign in the living room reads, “Custom Shirts & other objets d’art.” The sign previously hung in the window of her store on Lancaster Avenue in Ardmore. It was one of several business locations she had over the years, including King’s Highway in Haddonfield — inspiring her company’s name — and a store on Walnut Street near Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. She counted former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. and the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner among her customers. Previously, she lived in Society Hill Towers and later had “a charming house” in Haverford.

When the market crashed in 2008, she moved her home and business to the brick duplex she had bought as an investment several years earlier.

Soon after she moved, a prominent lawyer and longtime client visited her new digs. As he made his way from the back door through the kitchen, Gold apologized for her modest surroundings. The client replied, “Frugal is in.”

Now, with the pandemic, Gold said, “frugal is in again.” Her business is rebounding slowly with orders for dress and sports shirts. One came from the son of a longtime customer, so she is catering to a new generation.

Gold is close to her children and five grandchildren and has been able to get together with a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren who live nearby, including grandson Parker Kramer. He handcrafted the glass bonsai and several glass bud vases Gold proudly displays.

“Life changes; you have to adapt,” Gold said. “I love my apartment. It has a wonderful vibe.” During this difficult time, she is happy to be “living small in a safe place.”

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