By Jason Crane
Valentines Day 2024, should have been a joyful occasion for David Lasota, co-owner of The Cornucopia Tea and Gift Shop in Aurora. The day to celebrate love is the anniversary for he and his late wife Katie, who died unexpectedly, two days after Christmas 2023.
He is keeping alive the memory of his life and business partner by vowing to sustain the tea shop on Broadway in Aurora.
“I’m keeping her legacy going, because she was a retail girl for 40 years, and I’m keeping it going in her honor,” he said.
David and Katie met through an online dating website in 2007. After dating for a little while and unable to have children, she asked he and his two children to move in to her historic Aurora home. Four years of dating led to marriage on Valentine’s Day 2011.
“She was a great mother to my children and my daughter calls her, mother.” He added she was “One special lady” and is sad they don’t get to grow old together.
Harry, the couple’s beloved 12-year old Yorkie, is part of the family and they would joke he is the president of the company.
“When she passed that day, the 27th, all he did was go outside and howl. They know!” David exclaimed.
David said Katie was from South Portland, Maine, had a little British in her, loved tea, and had a Cornucopia shop in Missouri before moving to Illinois. Together, in 2019, they resurrected her business, online first, then the brick and mortar shop at 63 South Broadway.
Representative Barbara Hernandez, a customer of the tea shop, recently sponsored House Resolution 576 to honor Katie, posthumously after learning of her death.
The shop with a motto of “It is always time for tea!” sells more than tea. Unique gifts include ready-made Easter baskets, gourmet cheese, meats, crackers, eccentric tea pots, beverage mugs, and spa products ranging from lotions and soaps to bath bombs. Gift cards are available and artwork on display is for sale.
On weekends, the shop is host to Sip ’n Paint Tea Parties where participants can drink tea while they paint with different types of tea for a range of hues.
Additional parking is available on Broadway and behind the store in the Water Street lot, 75 Water Street.
Their website address is www.thecornucopiashopllc.com.