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- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 16 May 2006.
Ester Lee Eberhardt obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 4 Dec 2007.
A year ago Ben Wilson seemed to have it all - loving family, three furniture stores and a new one in the works, solid reputation, a life grounded in faith.
That was then. Today the business he founded, Sit & Sleep, is closing in a few days. His reputation took a major hit when a 1990 conviction for aggravated sex abuse put him on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry and muddied an already nasty custody battle over his wife's nephew. Once he got on the registry he wasn't even allowed to enter the new store because it was too close to a day care center. He has lost his beloved farm. He makes his living selling cars at his brother-in-law's lot.
"It's been rough," he said. "I've not gotten through it."
Wilson blames nobody. You'll hear no moaning about bad luck and misfortune. He neither seeks nor wants pity.
For a while there Wilson had a magic touch. He and wife Sabrina opened Hillbilly Hand-Me-Downs in 2002, which evolved into Sit & Sleep. He had two stores in Sevierville and one in Seymour before deciding to consolidate into one massive store on Dolly Parton Parkway next to Evergreen Church. But he got overextended spending and borrowing to build it. He was paying his employees too well, he says, and while they deserved it, it cut deeply into his profit-and-loss statement. That's another thing that led to his downfall: He never really understood how to run a business.
"I didn't even know what a P&L was or what a balance sheet was," he said. "All I knew was we had plenty of cash flow. I didn't see the signs on the wall until it was too late."
A year ago be brought in advisors to help him through the crisis. They looked at his books and his debt and advised him to shut things down - months before the new store would even be open. He refused. He borrowed against his farm. He made his workers take pay cuts. He got profitable again.
Then the real estate market took a nosedive. With fewer cabins and homes being built, it meant fewer purchases of furniture.
"In June when I opened the new store, I knew it was over. I realized I didn't have the money to pay for all the merchandise. I could file bankruptcy and walk away, close the doors and be done with it. But then I thought about all these people who had trusted me, who had paid me 10 percent or half or all of the money for furniture they'd ordered. If I shut down they wouldn't get it. I couldn't do that."
Meanwhile his past resurfaced. In 1990 while living in Utah, Wilson, then 19, had inappropriate contact with a 13-year-old. There was no sex and it was consensual contact, but he was later charged with aggravated child abuse and pleaded it out.
"I knew the moral implications of it," he said. "I didn't know the legal implications."
Wilson later met and married his wife Sabrina. Children, some of them adopted, followed. He says he never hid his past from his family, and state social workers knew it too when they approved his adoptions. But during a contentious custody battle over his wife's nephew, it all came out. Word spread. He was forced to register with the state over the summer because of his offense, which spread the story wider. Rumors were everywhere. Friends deserted him, while others rallied in support.
While he owns up to his past, he does think it's unfair that he is on a registry with child predators and people who abuse young children. He hopes the law will be changed next year to separate those who truly belong on a sex registry and those whose offenses shouldn't carry such a stigma.
The combination of bad business decisions and his Utah offense was too much. He last walked in his store on Aug. 3. The business is in the hands of a liquidation company that is handling the closing sale.
Through all this his faith hasn't been shaken, even if his pride has been.
"I do everything I can to be a good person and do the right thing," he said. "It's not like I found Jesus in jail. I grew up with Jesus. My faith in him hasn't been shaken. This didn't happen to me because the Lord made it happen. I lost things, I lost my reputation, but I have had calls from people I never expected to hear from. I never wanted to be the richest man in town, to have boats and fancy cars. I still have my family, my health, my kids. Don't feel sorry for me."
He will remain here and work hard to regain the trust of those who think badly of him. But he admits when he rides by that store on the hill, "it breaks my heart. It's beyond pride. My pride is pretty much crippled. It's heartache."
A heartache he won't be rid of soon.
- Stan Voit is editor of The Mountain Press. His column appears each Sunday. He can be reached at 428-0748, ext. 217, or e-mail to svoit@themountainpress.com.
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