High Profile: CHRISTY CROFFEAD SCHACHTE

Looking back, Christy Croffead Schachte now thinks it all makes sense.

The time she spent in optometry school, the Northwest expedition, counseling teens in Alaska, teaching English in Japan, working at the S.C. Aquarium. Even her mother's untimely death, as tragically devastating as that was to a daughter who is an only child.

"Now that I look back on each part of my life, it all helped me to become the entrepreneur that I am," she says. "That moment of losing somebody focuses you, and you're seeing your own mortality and realizing you have one chance, one life, and you are either going to make it or not, so you'd better live your dream."

Schachte — wife, mom and owner of MoM Spa, a day spa that caters to women — is doing that.

"I am one blessed woman," she says.

Early years

Her childhood was idyllic, growing up in a large Greek Orthodox family in Charleston, the only child of optometrist Thomas Croffead and his artist wife, Pati Crosby Croffead.

"My father was the doctor, the rock," she says. "And my mother was an artist — creative, highly intelligent and flamboyant."

Many days were spent at her family's beach house at Folly or on Crosby Seafood's shrimp boats.

"My first jobs were cleaning lenses for my dad and shoveling ice and pulling up nets on shrimp boats," she says.

After college, she was on track to follow her father and his father, ophthalmologist George Croffead, into eye care.

"I always thought my whole goal was to join the family practice," she says. Then she went on a six-week wilderness adventure in Alaska. "I was in optometry school in my second year, when I said, 'What are you doing? This is not where you need to be.' "

She withdrew from school and returned to Alaska to be a counselor for teens, leading kayak and hiking expeditions. Then she traveled the United States, and in California earned a degree to teach English as a foreign language. That led to a three-year stint in Japan, which also allowed travel to Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

"That was a time of my life I call the 'age of innocence,' " she says. "There was no fear. You put something in front of me and I just did it. I just traveled and learned about myself and what I wanted to be."

She returned to Charleston in July 1998 and was still readjusting to American life a month later when her mother, who struggled with depression, died.

"She did everything for everyone else," Schachte says. "I don't think she fully gave herself permission to be the person she wanted to be, but she gave me that gift."

Meeting David

Schachte began re-evaluating her goals, and two significant things happened.

The first was a Super Bowl party in 1999.

Christy Croffead, who worked at the soon-to-open S.C. Aquarium, and residential real estate agent David Schachte had never met, even though their families had known each other for years.

"The last thing I ever thought of was getting married and having children and settling in Charleston," she says. "As much as I loved Charleston, I just thought of going to the next country."

But she agreed to the setup anyway.

"I thought, I'm going to go and meet him and be on my way and figure out what the next step is," she says. "But he opened the door and we both took two steps back, and we've been together ever since."

David, she says, "is my rock. As my mom had my dad, I have David. I think my mom had a lot to do with me meeting David at the right time and the right place."

They were married March 2, 2002, in a "big, fat Greek wedding," she says. "It was a whole week of festivities. We had 450 people and everybody already knew each other."

Massage therapy

The second significant thing was the way she dealt with the loss of her mother.

"My goal was to get through the grief," she says. "I did counseling and the whole thing, but the one thing that helped me begin to feel and to open up was getting weekly massages. The man who worked on me could literally open me up and close me back, and I found that amazing. I found that safe. Slowly but surely, my heart began to mend, and then I realized, I want to do this. I want to help somebody else."

She became a licensed massage therapist, working at area day spas until the birth of son Gunnar on March 14, 2004, which was followed by the arrival of Liam on Oct. 10, 2005.

When she began to wonder again about her goals, her doctor suggested reading. She picked up books about owning a business.

"I started forming the idea that maybe this can work," she says of opening a spa.

Her husband was willing to give up his full-time career to raise their boys.

"He sacrificed once we figured out what I needed to do," she says. "Having David's and all of our family's support to go after it is what gave me permission to do this."

But she wasn't sure until the day Tony Mark, a relative who retired to Charleston and now owns a portable folding kayak company called Folbot Inc., pulled her aside.

"He said, 'Christy, if you don't do this now, one day you're going to pick up the paper and somebody else is going to have done it already,' " she says.

Mark became her mentor, helping her crunch the numbers, find a location and make MoM Spa a reality.

"Day in and day out, he was there 14, 16, 18 hours a day, helping me rebuild this place," she says of the space on Houston Northcutt Boulevard in Mount Pleasant that once held a tanning salon.

MoM Spa opened in April 2007. Schachte, who still does up to six massages a day, now has 10 employees.

As she caters to women of "all ages and stages" with all-natural products, facials and massages, Schachte says she often can feel their pain.

"I think of massage as an art," she says. "I think of it as therapy in its own way. I have been through a lot that maybe they've been through, so it's easy for them to open up."

She works with clients dealing with infertility, postpartum depression and any number of other things, helping them to heal.

And as they heal, so does she. The spa is in honor and memory of her mother, whose artwork hangs throughout.

"My mom was my best friend by far," she says. "I put my heart and soul into building a place where I could feel her spirit. If I can do a quarter of the work she did in her lifetime, that's enough for me."

Christy Croffead Schachte

Age, place of birth: 38, in Roper Hospital.

Family: Husband, David Schachte; sons, Gunnar, 4, and Liam, 2; German shepherds, Kia and Cosmo.

Occupation: Owner of MoM Spa.

Education: Ashley Hall, College of Charleston, Charleston School of Massage.

Combining work and family: "You can balance work and family, but it takes a tribe. I work very long days, but I have flexibility. This has worked out better than any other full-time job." In addition to her husband, Schachte gets a lot of support from her in-laws, retired Rear Adm. William and Carmen Schachte; her father, Thomas Croffead; and stepmother, Pattie Croffead.

Time for herself: When she was in college, she competed in marathons and triathlons. She still enjoys running, often leaving from MoM Spa and running over the Cooper River Bridge. She also does yoga, and is a member of EcoFitness. "I love setting goals, seeing progress and achieving success."

Childhood memories: "Fishing; crabbing; bodysurfing; riding bikes with cousins; playing backgammon; listening to our good friend, John Brannen, sing; petting porpoises; seeing the sunrise from a shrimp boat."

Current travel life: "Even though we don't get to explore new territories as often as we would like, David and I do try and keep life exciting. Last weekend (for his birthday), I surprised him with a tandem skydiving day. He's always wanted to do it and it was by far one of the most thrilling events in his life, and needless to say, scariest of mine."

Advice to would-be entrepreneurs: "Start now. Surround yourself with only positive, supportive people. Seek advice from successful ones in your field. Ask for a mentor. "

Goal for Mom spa: "To give back."

Brenda Rindge can be reached at 937-5713 or brindge@postandcourier.com.