Becker’s Bridal has been run by an unbroken family chain – a great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter – for 78 years.

The store’s founder, Eva Becker, was a tough, unsentimental woman who got brides into dresses like a drill sergeant. She ran the business to sell dresses, not to talk about love or romance. She was never the type to say “I love you” to anyone.

Eva died in 1975, and her granddaughter, Shelley, and great-granddaughter, Alyssa, now run the store. They say they feel Eva’s presence, almost as if she’s hovering around them.

As Shelley explains: “I’m grateful that it seems as if Grandma Eva is still here, helping Alyssa and me. I feel like she’s showing her love now, through all her energy in the store. Sometimes when people are alive, they can’t fully show the love they’re feeling. Maybe for some people, like Grandma Eva, their love somehow comes afterward.”

Pictured: Eva and Frank Becker at their 1922 wedding