With the changing of seasons, Ridge residents look forward to cooler weather, colored leaves, and fall festivities. Anticipation for one event, however, surpasses all others: the autumn opening of Joy Lyn’s Candies.

Since 1969, Paradise’s beloved candy shop has opened exactly on October 1st, ushering in a nostalgic season of celebration and confectionery. This year will be no different. Owners Glenn and Jody Hartley, longtime Paradise residents, have been cooking up a sweet storm for their grand reopening in their new location on Pearson Road.

“I can’t wait to see all the happy faces coming through the door,” Glenn, chief candymaker, enthused. “I love sharing our product.”

For the Hartleys, returning to Paradise was a homecoming both personally and professionally. “Paradise is what we know, “ said Jody, who runs the operations and sales side of the business. “We wanted to bring hope to the town. If Joylyn’s came back, we hoped more people might come back, too.”

Now the fifth family to own the business, they bought the candy shop from Glenn’s parents in October of 2018. They lost both the Joy Lyn’s building and their home in the fire, and knew almost immediately they’d return to the Ridge. “Joy Lyn’s belongs in Paradise,” Glenn said. “It didn’t feel right to reopen anywhere else. It felt like it needed to come home.”

Instead of rebuilding, they opted to buy a surviving home for their family and moved the candy business to the building across from Paradise Community Park.

Having a standing structure definitely helped in their re-opening process, but renovations came with their own unique set of challenges. For one, construction and remodeling took longer due to contractors’ busy schedules. A challenge unique to the chocolate business was building a commercial kitchen and the painstaking replacement of all their kitchen tools and equipment. “We were a working museum,” Jody laughed. “Our fire cooker was 100 years old, and we had a 130 year old nutcracker.”

With patience and intentionality, they were able to restore their kitchen with all USA-made equipment, much of it antique or pre-loved–they even have new peanut brittle machete!

“Don’t be in a rush,” they advised others considering a return to the Ridge. “It’s step by step, small steps. It’s definitely as hard as you think it’s going to be, but it’s worth it.“

In their new climate-controlled building, the Hartleys are excited to keep their business open year-round going forward, something never done before in the previous building. This means opportunities to take treats to Party in the Park during the summers and offer sweet escapes twelve months out of the year. “It’s one more step of healing,” Jody said. “One more positive step in the right direction for Paradise.”

As they prepare legendary fall delights like caramel apples, pumpkin pie truffles, and all the fall favorites people love, Glenn and Jody occasionally glance at the iconic Joy Lyn’s sign hanging on the front of their building. Miraculously, the original survived the fire, a fitting tribute for a living legend.

“You might own the store,” said a recent customer. “But Joy Lyn’s belongs to Paradise. It’s everyones.”