“All of life, you make a plan and God laughs,” he said.

Both now in their early 70s, Mike and Eileen have spent 43 years as the proprietors, owners, and jewelers of Beglin’s Lake Placid Jewelers & Gifts, which will close on Sept. 3 when they retire.

The path to the Beglins’ mainstay business on Main Street was long. Originally from Long Island, Mike enrolled at North Country Community College in 1970 with hopes of becoming an entrepreneur. It did not take long for him to fall in love with the area — and Eileen, another Long Islander studying at NCCC. After college, Eileen returned home and worked in the jewelry business while Mike continued his education at SUNY Plattsburgh and eventually opened a pizza shop.

Several businesses, a wedding, and two kids later, the entrepreneurial Beglins were operating The Back Door, a bar in Saranac Lake, when the 1980 Winter Olympic Games came into the area. They were eager to expand their business ventures to cater to their growing family. When the jewelry store across the street from their bar was put up for sale, Mike saw an opportunity to build a business for Eileen to run. As her own boss, she would not have to worry about finding childcare, and a jewelry store intersected well with her interests and skills. Soon, Mike found his calling in the world of jewelry, too.

“Mike did buy (the shop) so I would work it, and just through osmosis, he became a very integral part, if not the jeweler (of the family),” Eileen said.

After acquiring the shop in 1980, Mike dove headfirst into the unfamiliar world of jewelry, learning to repair and craft custom pieces by training under other jewelers. He was eventually asked to join the Independent Jewelers Organization and earned his Master Bench Jeweler certification. As his skills and stockroom developed, so did the Beglins’ customer base. In 1996, they were able to open a “half” location in the back room of Great Adirondack Steak and Seafood — now Great Adirondack Brewing Company — to cater to customers waiting to be seated. That same year, they opened their current location in Lake Placid, which soon became their sole store.

Nowadays, thanks to the advent of the internet and subsequent shifts in systems of commerce, the jewelry game has changed.

“When you used to go into a jewelry store, that’s where you bought razors and leather wallets and Cross pens,” Eileen said. “So, of course, when the box stores came in, we would buy three (of a product) and they would buy three million, so the price point dropped … you have to learn to adapt. You have to be willing to change.”

There is a dwindling number of jewelry stores and master jewelers across the country who offer the same repair and customization services as the Beglins. When it came time to retire, Mike opted to close the shop instead of selling it, as there were no jewelers capable of the same handiwork looking to take over an established business. Despite these changes in the industry and seasonal customer base shifts between tourists and locals, the business has remained steady for the Beglins.

“Had it not been for the local following that we have, we wouldn’t be half as successful as we are,” Mike said.

“They are our meat and potatoes,” Eileen added. “They are the people who really supported us, and we are so thankful. Those are the people that we serve. We serve the locals.”

Jewelry is present for many of life’s most important and happy moments, a fact that the Beglins do not take for granted. They recalled several occasions when three generations of customers from the same family got engaged with rings from their shop. They treasure their “intimate relationship” with their customers.

In one instance, the Beglins even went on a Tolkien-esque quest across the North Country for their customers — a journey that, as Mike put it, brought a new meaning to the phrase “personal service.”

After a couple in Bloomingdale ordered a pair of last-minute wedding bands from the shop for their ceremony, the Beglins saw that the jewelry company from which they had ordered was slow to ship the rings. Come the day of the ceremony, the rings were still nowhere to be found. So, they took matters into their own hands.

“As I tracked (the rings), I found that (they were) in Plattsburgh, in the warehouse,” Mike said. “So Eileen and I went over there and knocked on the door and begged the people to let us in there, helped them go through the packages that they had on the conveyor belts until I found one that was for me, opened it up, the ring was in there, drove back to Bloomingdale, and handed it to the groom literally 40 minutes before the wedding was to take place.”

The Beglins are serious about going to the ends of the Earth for their customers — literally. In the past few decades, they have traveled everywhere from the diamond district in Antwerp to a pearl market in China to hand-select the perfect centerpieces for their customers’ jewelry. After announcing their imminent retirement, the Beglins have received an outpouring of support and well-wishes from regular customers across the country.

“We’ve built friendships, and along the way, we’ve really had a pretty blessed life,” Eileen said. “I know (retirement) is the right decision.”

Jewelry will not completely leave the Beglins’ lives, however. Mike plans to keep his workbench — where he does all of his handiwork — and will continue to source diamonds for custom pieces, albeit on a much smaller scale than he is used to in the shop.

“It’s as bittersweet as you’d expect it to be,” he said.

Beglin’s Lake Placid Jewelers & Gifts will close on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023, after 43 years in business. On Monday, Sept. 4, the newly-retired Beglins will be eagerly anticipating future travels — this time for pleasure, not business — and spending more time with their grandchildren.