My Mom's Pet Shop Was Blown to Pieces

I woke up to a call from my mom, Sabrina. She told me there had been a big explosion.

At first, I couldn't comprehend it. It was so unexpected—so out of place. There was nothing nearby that could explain such an event.

It was December 7, 2023. I'm in the U.K., and she's back home in the Seychelles.

I asked her repeatedly: "An explosion? What do you mean?" She explained that four containers filled with explosives at a construction company had detonated.

I couldn't initially grasp the scale of it. But it turned out to be very serious. The entire province, the whole industrial zone of the island, was left with a trail of devastation.

It took me some time to understand because it was so unheard of, so unimaginable. The Seychelles is fortunate to be in an area where natural disasters aren't common. There are no volcanoes or earthquakes. So, to hear about an explosion was shocking. It took me a moment to process.

My mom established the shop in 2012 and it was a brave endeavor. She had quit her job and took on this responsibility full-time.

She has spent countless hours over the years learning what the pets of Seychelles would benefit from, and even more studying and learning pet products on the market and finding a way to get them to Seychelles, even if products were from as far as Europe.

It all began when she got our family dog, Shylock, an adorable Cocker Spaniel puppy. However, Shylock had skin problems and a sensitive stomach and Sabrina struggled to find the best products for him.

She thought "I'll find them myself!" and quickly noticed that his quality of life improved and that he became happy.

My mom wanted to share this with other owners and their pets in Seychelles, so she opened Connections Trading Pet Shop. Although Shylock is no longer with us, thanks to him, hundreds of Seychelles pets have received a chance, and have brought countless smiles to us and our clients.

That night, my mom's husband received a call from a family friend who was holidaying in Dubai. She was calling because her brother in Canada had heard there had been a big explosion near her place in Petit Paris, in the district of Cascade.

Everything had been blown to pieces—houses, roofs, electric systems. She immediately tried to contact her family over there, namely her husband and her daughter, but she could not get through.

She was in an absolute state of panic and called my mom's husband to try to figure out what was going on.

My mom immediately tried to get hold of her friend's daughter. Her husband picked up the phone. They were without electricity and didn't understand what was going on. Their house was left without windows or ceilings. There was glass everywhere, but they somehow managed to get out of the house alive.

Being so far away, I felt hopeless because I couldn't be there with my mom. The area was completely closed off by the military and police. Initially, it took her a while to be able to even visit her pet shop to assess the damage to her business.

Our family property and business were in the vicinity. In the area was a warehouse that held the stock for the pet shop and other buildings we rented to smaller businesses, like a bakery that provided bread to the rest of the island.

She wanted to know the extent of the damage, but they wouldn't let anyone in or out for a day or two. We were just hearing and seeing on social media that it looked horrible. There were pieces of buildings on the ground.

I grew up there. I spent a lot of time with that side of the family. The roads and areas that I knew so well looked completely disfigured.

My heart bled for my mom who had lost her business overnight. And when she did manage to arrive and see the situation, it was worse than I thought it would be.

Thankfully, no pets were in the pet shop at the time of the explosion, but the ceiling was on the floor, windows were blown out, and the roof was so badly damaged that the rain was coming straight through, causing further damage. It was devastating.

Water was pouring from the ceiling, destroying everything inside, from printers to important paperwork, not to mention the memories. Upstairs, where my grandparents used to stay, was one of the most badly hit places. Furniture and memories were literally on the floor.

Seeing all of this, I couldn't just sit there and tell her I was sorry without offering more help. I wanted to start a fundraising page because the amount of damage that had taken place was essentially all of the savings my mom had, including any inheritance left behind by my grandparents.

Just to be operational again, not even to restore it to what it used to be, would drain all of my mom's hard work and savings from over 10 years with the business and then some. It was heartbreaking.

I set up an online fundraiser to try and give back her livelihood, and her savings. She's worked so hard and she doesn't deserve this. It's already been so difficult these last few years. We're still in a way processing it, still trying to recover from this damage.

I believe that the government is not prioritizing business owners who have lost their shops like my mom. We completely understand that there have been other homes and families going through their own losses, but even the very little bit that has been promised has not come through.

It wasn't just the explosion that was happening. There was also such heavy rain that has been going on for weeks and is still going on now, causing landslides. It was this chaotic combination of landslides, flooding, heavy rain, and then this explosion that led to a nationwide state of emergency being declared.

After the explosion, plywood was promised to be supplied to contain the buildings that had been blasted open. My mom has just been waiting and waiting, and none of the plywood has arrived. It was to protect products, money, and anything from being looted because everything is wide open.

To this day, she still hasn't received that promised plywood and she had to rely on what could be scavenged from our resources and the willingness of others to help.

I had warm memories in my mom's pet shop. I was always so excited to see the new products on the shelves and all of the adorable pet toys and accessories. I have very fond memories of my late grandmother being involved. It truly was a family-run business.

As I got older, the pet shop also became a place where I learned valuable work experience and life skills. I also spent several months working in the shop alongside my mother before leaving for university.

I saw that my mom's business was far more than a pet shop; people from all over the island would often pop by to have a chat with my mom and share the latest news and pictures of their pets.

I hope that the pet shop can be operational as soon as possible as this is the main bread earner for my mom and the fruit of many years of hard work and ambitious and admirable entrepreneurship.

And I hope the fundraising campaign will help my mom get back on her feet and provide the encouragement to keep going; to show her that she isn't alone and people can come together to support the brave and hardworking who deserve so much more in life.

Alessia Lavigne was born and raised in Seychelles and is currently doing her PhD in the UK on the reproductive failure in threatened turtles. Her mom is Sabrina Lapolla Victor, the hardworking owner of Connection's Trading Pet Shop, established in 2012, whose business was destroyed in an industrial explosion.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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