The Love Story,

Verline

Gi Gi V. Boutique is a family owned business. The beauty pictured is our mom, Verline. She married our dad, Ricardo Cantu, in 1951 at the age of 15 and, according to him, became a true soldier’s wife. Together they raised seven children with two of the three daughters being born in France while dad was on tour near Paris.

We named our store Gi Gi after the 1958 film starring Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier and it just so happened it was only a few years off from when our family arrived in France. The V. in our name is our mom’s first initial and also that of all three daughters.

While being the soldier’s wife first, then mom to seven children, and working a full time retail job on top of all that; she is the glue that keeps everything all together. We so admire our mom who then worked by my father’s side to build Cantu Services, Inc. to the strength and size of what it is today, and all of this starting after my father’s 22 1/2 year Army career.

You can tell by this picture how much class our mother has. She was always the one to look glamorous. She has wonderful taste and in the early years with four boys and three girls on a very tight budget, became an excellent seamstress as well. We girls look back with fond memories at all those matching dresses, and the patches on the boys’ knees were flawless!

We have no formal background in fashion but with 3 daughters, 8 granddaughters, and 7 great granddaughters, and still counting, we girls thought mom and dad, in addition to everything else, should own a boutique! That’s a lot of “girl” shopping and to be honest; through trial and error we are becoming much better at it.

We love our store and it is because of Mom and Dad’s love for each other and their unselfish willingness to work so hard for their children that we have what we have in this world and all of us kids are so grateful!