Talk restoration with Lana Fisk in her quaint yet cluttered Lana’s Doll Repair store at 2417 S. University Blvd. and it is apparent that more than dolls are being repaired and refurbished.

Making one’s way through the store requires a side step in order to avoid bumping into a center display lined with seemingly endless rows of tiny accessories from shoes to shirts.

“The most fun thing is when little girls come in with their moms,” said Fisk. “It is rewarding to see their smiles after I repair one of their dolls. I make sure that they try on shoes and clothes so they know they fit before they leave.”

There are stacks of dolls, a glass display case and a wooden workstation equipped with tools. This is just the way Fisk likes it, as her business is about quantity just as much as it is quality.

“All that you see in front of you here is it,” said Fisk, looking around the one-room store. “But I also have a house and a garage that are full of dolls, which provoked me to open the store.”

An abundance of dolls and a four-fold increase in business since opening the shop two years ago have justified her idea for starting a business. Forced to shut down her landscaping business in the 1980’s due to a poor economy, Fisk’s accumulation of dolls rewarded her with more than just a new business.

“A girlfriend of mine and I took a Saturday and visited as many doll shops as we could,” said Fisk. “It was in one shop where I found two dolls that said to me ‘take me home’. What captured me was the way they were dressed, their expressions and the mere fact that they had survived so long in such good condition.”

She added, “My favorite was a porcelain boy that was wearing a fleece sleeper with a matching hat and carrying a Winnie the Pooh doll.”

Fisk took them both home and to this day believes they rekindled her love for dolls that she had in childhood.

“It had suddenly become more fun to climb trees and steal marbles from boys than to play with dolls,” said Fisk.

The two dolls prompted Fisk to look into her grandmother’s collection. There she found a doll that a close friend said would be worth a great sum of money if it were repaired. Fisk took her friend’s advice and had the doll restored.

After picking up the doll, Fisk was not satisfied with the shoddy work. It was at that moment she decided to learn to repair dolls on her own.

“I discovered I really liked what I was doing because I could see a difference,” said Fisk.

Meanwhile, her doll collection was increasing as she received them as Christmas presents from her grandchildren and birthday presents from her husband.

Even with the establishment of her doll repair shop, Fisk’s house is just as jam-packed as before. The house serves as the beginning point of her operation, as all dolls that make it to the shop first stop off at the house.

“When we bring the dolls into the house, we put them into one of two areas,” explained Fisk. “One area is for dolls that need to be cleaned up and the other is for dolls that need to be repaired.”

With a sound set of procedures, a successful business and a newfound love of dolls, Fisk is set to take her love home. A native of Kansas, Fisk will be closing and relocating her shop to the Sunflower state in six months.

But wherever Fisk finds herself, she is helping to revive the childhood memories of others as she did her own.