For the last 38 and a half years, Merry Worswick has been giving her time to Sacks Thrift Shoppe. Her apron is adorned with the gemstone pins she’s received for every five years of service.

She had envisioned herself being there for 40 years, but she’ll be a year and a half shy of that milestone.

“I had a goal and I didn’t get to keep it,” she said with muted frustration. She is one of about 80 volunteers who won’t be able to sort through donated items, meet customers, and be the beating heart of this community come mid-May.

On April 14, management from the store’s operator, Providence at Home Sonoma County Hospice Foundation, informed staff and volunteers of the nearly 40-year-old thrift shop officially known as Sacks Thrift Shoppe of Providence that the foundation would not renew the lease at 128 Liberty Street. Closure is slated for “on or before” May 15, although the lease isn’t due to expire until August, according to a media advisory.

The lease won’t be renewed “due to significant capital improvements and required safety/compliance upgrades,” according to an emailed statement from Mary Beth Walker, communications manager of Providence, a Catholic health system that manages 51 hospitals and various health services in seven states. It is unclear at this time what those specific upgrades are. 

The popular thrift shop, which sells furniture, clothes, cards, and an assortment of home goods, benefits a homegrown hospice program – Hospice of Petaluma, one of the first in the nation in 1977 – that is now corporately operated by Providence at Home Sonoma County Hospice Foundation.

Providence hasn’t been immune to pushback over the last year. Last summer, hospice staff at Providence Health-run facilities in Santa Rosa and Petaluma picketed in response to its move to contract hospice and long-term care with an equity-owned company, Compassus. They also spoke out against what they described as bad-faith bargaining.

Also over the last year, staff at the Providence-owned Petaluma Valley Hospital have repeatedly held informational pickets to call attention to their contract negotiations with Providence Sonoma County.

As news of Sacks Thrift Shoppe’s impending closure reverberated around the community, the loss prompted an outpouring of support and mourning over a community institution.

In response, Petaluma resident Gene Gable started a petition that garnered more than 1,700 signatures in about a week. “It is impossible for a conglomerate like Providence to place a value on that kind of interaction, but it is the sort of thing that changes lives for the better,” Gable wrote.

Several commentators and volunteers pointed to the store’s reason for existence: supporting hospice care. “Well, everybody that's here” – customers and volunteers alike – “has lost someone,” longtime volunteer Worswick said.

The exceptional care that people see their loved ones receive at Hospice of Petaluma prompts them to donate and volunteer, she said. 

When asked what she thinks about Sacks, Worswick responded, “Before or now?” Now, she said, “sadness.” Before, “we were a happy place.”

After greeting Worswick, fellow volunteer Judy Smith was on the verge of tears when asked what she would do without the store – her second home, she said. “I don’t understand why home is leaving me,” said the retired nurse, who began volunteering regularly after retiring from Petaluma Valley Hospital in 2010.

Both wondered: can this place be saved? “What are you going to do, except pray for someone to take over,” Smith said while Worswick nodded in agreement.

According to the media notice, moving forward, “Providence at Home Sonoma County Hospice Foundation will continue raising funds for expanded grief support, necessities of life and community based palliative care, simply in other ways.”

Several volunteers and shoppers described the store as part of a larger ecosystem in the community. Some knew volunteers by name and shared stories of watching them chit-chat and scurry around the shop.

Shoppers said they visited because — in an era when vintage clothes are trendy and prices at other second-hand stores are often higher — Sacks is truly affordable. Others found friendships and a sense of purpose after a loss. 

Several shoppers, like Jessie Dolan, said they felt good shopping at Sacks because they know it is money well-spent toward hospice care and grief counseling.

Resellers like Julie Souza, who’s been shopping at Sacks since about 2008, often found treasures at this place. Among the many community benefits the shop offers, she noted it also keeps items out of the landfill. The closure is “almost like a death in your family,” she said.

As Phil Goldberg rolled around in an electric scooter, he lamented the closure of the store that has furnished much of his home. “This is a real terrible loss,” he said. “It’s a loss for the heart and soul of Petaluma. I really believe that.”

Update 4/23/26 8:39 p.m.: Walker did not initially respond to questions asking about building ownership, and how much funding the shop garnered for hospice services.

When asked about the extent of needed upgrades and improvements, she wrote in an email sent after the story initially ran, “there’s a range of improvements and safety/compliance needs.”

Walker also wrote that the foundation’s leader has been receiving emails and calls from community members “with sentiment that aligns with the petition.”