Photo courtesy of Brittany Nelson

By Steve Sears

For 33-year-old Brittany Nelson, the signs were all there, and the ducks on the Pequannock River behind her Mary Ella Studios all lined up for her.

Nelson, who initially grew up in Butler but moved to Vernon when she was a junior in high school, had recently faced challenging times. She’d lost her job during COVID-19 and her daughter’s father passed away as well. “We were just having a rough go of it,” Nelson says. “I had a mortgage, I owned my own home, and it was just her (daughter Savanah) and I, and I was just stressed to the max.” She found a solution. “I put on YouTube and I started just Googling ‘stress relief techniques,’ and yoga came up. I said to myself, ‘I don’t even know what yoga is. I’m not flexible, I can’t do yoga,’ but I just started doing it and then fell in love with it.” Nelson made it a part of her daily regimen, and then encouraged family members to give it a go. “We live here on a lake, and I was going outside and doing yoga on the dock overlooking the lake.”

“It just completely changed my life; I learned how to deal with stress.”

All of the above – and a bit more – leads to her opening Mary Ella Studios, an intimate place to enjoy yoga and crafts, in a very special spot in Bloomingdale. 

One day, while driving through the community, Nelson saw a tiny building that had a “FOR RENT” sign posted on it. Nelson was interested and, although she had heard about the location her whole life, at that time was unaware that the building was where her Nan, Mary Whritenour, who died in 1989 at age 92, had owned Mary’s Luncheonette from 1962 – 1982. After a phone call with her mom confirmed it was indeed the spot, Nelson contacted the landlord and longtime Bloomingdale native, Frank Parisi, and she and her mom met with him. Parisi arrived with newspaper clippings and tales of the building’s history, and the trio talked for hours. “We talked about her and how his family was intertwined with mine back in the day, and how he came to get the property. And then he said, ‘If you want the property, it’s yours. There’s so much history here.’”

It was part of the journey which includes Nelson a decade ago visiting a psychic, who told her that a woman, a motherly figure with the first letter of her name ‘M” with red hair, was trying to communicate with her. “She (the psychic) described her to a T! We called her ‘Nan,’ I didn’t know her name was Mary. I couldn’t even put the two together, so I kept brushing her off. I would go to other psychics and tarot card readings, and she was trying to come through to me for 10 years, and I would brush her off.” A final psychic who she visited informed Nelson that the woman wouldn’t go away, and she was instructing her to get a hobby and move on with her life, to follow her passion.

Nelson’s next discussion with her mom was the clincher. “I came home and my mom told me her name was Mary and she had red hair.” It was indeed her Nan directing her to a lovely location so apropos for community, and Nelson was sold. “I just felt this vibe, like, ‘I can really make this like a nice place,’” she says. “It’s a small place. I fit five people to do yoga, but  most of the people know each other, they’ll come in little groups, and we are relaxed and comfortable with each other, and everybody is just having a good time exploring their bodies.” And then there is the Pequannock River behind the location. “The river is my favorite spot in the whole place,” she says. “When I open the window, the river is flowing and some people don’t even believe it. They’ve said to me. ‘You have a sound machine, and I’m like, ‘No, it’s really the river flowing. It’s nature!’ I really believe in yoga. There are so many benefits of yoga, and it’s not just exercise. It’s good for your mind and your body and your spirit. Notice before we start how you feel, and then notice how you feel after you’re done with the breathing and stretching, and just getting the tension out of your body.”

Her Nan has pointed her in the right direction. “I really do feel like she is a guide in my life,” Nelson says. “Every time I go to Mary Ella Studios, I feel that she’s telling me that I’m doing the right thing. It keeps being proven that this is my passion, that this is what makes me happy, that it’s possible, and that people are coming and enjoying the space and feeling the good energy there.”

Mary Ella Studios is located at 68 Hamburg Turnpike in Bloomingdale. For more information, visit www.instagram.com/maryellastudios.