Correspondent photo / Melissa Channell Nick Carano, 81, of Girard, has been taking his therapy bird, Ouija, an umbrella-crested cockatoo, to area nursing homes for the past 24 years. Carano is a native of Hubbard and graduated from Ursuline High School in 1959.

GIRARD — Nick Carano has had a variety of careers: Navy sailor, steel mill worker, grocery store owner and school custodian. However, he said the community service he provides now is perhaps his most fulfilling “job.”

Carano, 81, was born in Hubbard, the only child of Margaret and Nick Carano.

“I grew up in the grocery business,” he said.

The family’s first store was bought in 1948 on Broadway Street on the North Side of Youngstown.

“We lived above the store, and mom would cook us breakfast behind the meat counter before I left for school. We lived there from 1948 to 1959,” Carano said.

His family believed in giving a helping hand where they could.

“My dad gave credit to everyone on our street during the big steel strike in the 1950s. He kept all of the families fed, and not one of them stiffed him. They all paid him back after they went back to work,” he said.

A strong work ethic kept the business going.

In 1959, the family moved from Youngstown to Hubbard, where Carano made a couple of friends who got him involved in running, biking, skiing and racquetball.

Carano graduated from Ursuline High School in 1959, where he was in the ROTC. He went on to Youngstown State University, and in 1963, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. Carano spent eight years in the Navy, and after giving work at the steel mill a shot, he decided to work with his dad in the grocery business.

In 1982, a new store was built right next to the previous store in Youngstown.

“I began with Hubbard United Family Foods, then it was Carano’s Valu King. A loss of supplier led to becoming IGA (Independent Grocers Association). I eventually sold in 1999, and went to work right away for Giant Eagle. I retired from there in 2009,” Carano said.

Since leaving the grocery business, Carano has been working for the Niles City School District as a custodian.

In 1965, Nick married his first wife, but it didn’t last long. He married his second wife, Nancy Fiddler of Hubbard, in 1983. She died four years ago, but her daughter lives with Carano in Girard and helps him take care of the house.

Carano had three sons, Nick Jr., Michael (who owns the Yankee Trading Post) and David, who died in an accident as a child.

OTHER INTERESTS

Carano also has other interests.

“I’m a master scuba diver,” he said.

This entails doing every type of dive, from shipwrecks, to deep sea and cave.

“I was in Aruba, and the dive master was giving instructions, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was still getting my gear together. When I went over the edge of the boat, I was looking all around because you can’t really hear good down there and the Atlantis submarine was right there. He almost ran me over,” Carano said with a laugh.

Carano also has been skydiving and has his pilot’s license.

In 1993, a party with his scuba diving friends brought about a new adventure.

“I went to a Christmas party full of scuba diving friends. I played with this bird all night. The next day, they called me up to see if I wanted the bird,” he said.

Ouija (prounounced Wee Gee) is an umbrella-crested cockatoo, a very social therapy bird who visits area nursing homes.

“Ouija was 6 years old when I got him, and we’ve been doing this for 24 years. One time when I was visiting a nursing home, Ouija said ‘I love you’ to one of the nurses. When she saw Ouija, she screamed, ran down the hall, and shut herself in a room because she was that scared,” Carano said. “That’s one reason I do this; I don’t want people to be that scared of animals.”

Recently at Blackburn Home Independent Living in Poland, “Ouija was on the arm of a 100-year-old lady; the whole group was seated in a circle and Ouija was laughing, and the whole group was laughing, and she had tears streaming down her face from laughing so much.”

Carano credits Cleveland Clinic and a MitraClip procedure on his heart in 2021 for “giving me my life back.”

Carano has served his country and his community, and now he continues to serve others by taking his therapy bird to visit individuals in health care settings.

“I am 81 and still going strong,” Carano said.