by Mike Ramone
In 1992, one of our businesses, the Wilmington Florist Exchange, on 3rd and Church St, burned to the ground in a fire started by a lightning strike. We lost everything. At the time our other business, Ramone’s Flower Shoppes was still a young business, not able to fully support a family of 5 on its own, so I went to work for Bob Carpenter at the Pike Creek Fitness Center, in search of an additional paycheck.