Oct 6, 2012

Des Moines Spice Shop Perseveres Despite Owner’s Unexpected DeathBy Jennifer MillerTheRepublic.com

Des Moines, IA – It’s hard to imagine how a life can just go on without its heart — how a family keeps going, how a business stays on the rails. When the tick-tock of even the smallest universe’s timekeeper goes quiet, what is left?

Jennifer and Greta Rhoads and their little corner of the world, Allspice, are working that out, day by day, while figuring out how to cope with the sudden silence where Alex Rhoads — husband, father and business owner — used to be.

When 46-year-old Alex died unexpectedly of heart failure one Saturday morning in March, his wife and 10-year-old daughter were not only left with their own bruised hearts, but with Allspice, Alex’s dream-come-true retail ode to food and cooking. Allspice, the East Village shop celebrating its second anniversary this week, carries spices, herbs, oils, vinegars, chilies and dried mushrooms sourced from all over the world, and was a second career for attorney Alex, but a family project, too.

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