Time to go: Longtime Napan, business owner, mom leaving for Malta

They’re leaving Napa.

“I don’t know if I’ve grown out of Napa or Napa has outgrown me,” Wear said. “What I do know is that it is time to go.”

And by go, she really is going.

Wear and her twin children, two cats and an elderly dog are moving to Malta. It’s a small independent island country located between Sicily and North Africa in the Mediterranean Sea, 6,000 miles from California.

They leave at the end of June.

A 'nomad' finds a place to call home

Wear said that until she moved to Napa in 2000, she never really felt "at home."

As she grew up in the Midwest, her father for a time opened new Walmart stores in those states, so the family moved a lot, she explained.

After attending high school in Kentucky and Indiana, she headed to California. By then Wear knew she wanted to be an artist, which did not sit well with her parents. They are estranged.

However, an aunt lived in Green Valley next to Fairfield, so Wear and her future husband eventually moved nearby.

She connected with John Castro of Castro & Company jewelry, a former business owner on the downtown First Street block where the Archer hotel is today.

Wear, by then working as a fine jeweler, took over his location and in 2003 started her own business, Spinelle Fine Jewelers.

Wear put her heart and soul into being a downtown Napa merchant. She joined Leadership Napa Valley, class 20. She held themed fundraisers such as PJ, luau and tiara parties and raised money for the Cope Family Center, NEWS Domestic Violence & Sexual Abuse Services, Napa Humane, local schools and various nonprofits.

However, when the economy took a downturn, Wear took a step back to reconsider her priorities.

She closed the Spinelle retail shop in 2010 and moved her jewelry studio into her Alta Heights home, working by appointment only. A steady roster of clients, many of whom had become friends, followed her. The switch was a success. “It was way easier than a retail store and definitely more profitable,” said Wear.

By that time Wear was no longer married. Yet she had always wanted to be a mother and her divorce would not end that dream. In 2006, Wear decided to become a single mother by choice.

To raise money for fertility treatments she designed a lotus flower necklace made in either silver or gold featuring a Spinelle jewel in the middle. Her supporters bought a total of 178 of the necklaces, which contributed about $40,000 to help fulfill Wear’s goal.

That response meant everything to Wear. “It made me feel like I wasn’t alone on my journey," she said. "I was supported by a village of people.”

After several rounds of in vitro fertilization, Wear’s budget was almost exhausted and she decided to have two eggs implanted at the same time. It worked. Wear became pregnant with twins. Her children, Karl and Angel, were born in September 2015.

Wear describes her children as her “most magnificent creations.” For those first two years, she recalled, “I was the happiest exhausted I had ever been in my life.”

Each “chapter” of childhood is its own unique puzzle to figure out “and each year they get more complicated, but in a fascinating way,” said Wear.

And then COVID-19 hit.

Like many small business owners, she saw her income drop. She had $30,000 in completed jewelry orders for her clients but those who weren’t working couldn’t pick up their orders, she explained. “I barely made it through that time,” she said. “It changed me.”

On top of that, her twins’ school day was switched to online distance learning.

“That was a (expletive) show,” said Wear with a laugh. “I am designed to be their mother, not their teacher.”

A plan that Wear had to transition careers and coach women considering becoming single moms by choice didn’t progress as expected.

She noticed that Napa was changing, said Wear, but after the pandemic, it became more obvious to her.

More people began to move into the city and housing prices skyrocketed. To Wear, “the social fabric of the city, like a quilt,” started to unravel, she said.

Napa had always been a very tight-knit community where she felt a sense of belonging and was able to play an active role in making it home, said Wear, but “now it’s completely fallen apart.”

A family of three spreading their wings

Around that time, a longtime friend decided she was also ready to leave the Napa Valley.

This friend, who had lived in Europe before, talked about moving to Ireland or Switzerland. Wear was intrigued. She said she would consider leaving the U.S. if she had an “anchor”— someone who she could move with, in a tandem of sorts. The two would live separately but support each other as friends.

Her children had lived in the same home for the first nine years of their lives. Now, she decided, was the time for a big adventure.

“I'm an outside-the-box girl,” said Wear.

“My children are just old enough to spread their wings. It'll be the biggest stretch of my wings in my life. But I've made bigger ones. I mean, just having Karl and Angel as a single mom by choice is just one of many examples.”

“All my kids know is this bubble here in Napa, but it's not reality. I want my children to have an international experience" and be immersed in another culture, she said. “I want my children to grow up with travel.”

It just so happened that one of Wear’s jewelry clients is from Malta. While designing his wedding ring, she researched the country.

The two talked about Malta — a lot — and Wear liked what she learned.

The cost of living, from food to rent to utilities, is lower than in the Bay Area, more comparable to a Midwestern city, she said. The people are friendly. Children are particularly celebrated and appreciated. The crime rate is low. English is widely spoken.

“And football is big over there and my children happen to be passionate about football,” said Wear, referring to soccer.

Wear knew she definitely needed to visit Malta before making such a big move. In January, she and the twins spent almost four weeks in the country.

Their visit cemented the plan. Wear has since arranged to rent a home in a village in Malta named Mosta, population 23,482. Her friend has already bought a house nearby. Together they have started a fine jewelry design business “inspired by the rich history and culture of Malta” called Two Bird Designs.

On her return to Napa, Wear started getting rid of everything she could. A car was sold to a friend. Other items were posted and sold via Facebook. A “free” table was set up outside her Alta Heights home.

“I would say 75% of what I own will be gone by June 4,” said Wear. “My house will be empty, except for six pieces of luggage.”

She’s already arranged for tenants to live in her Napa home for up to two years. After that Wear and the kids will decide if they are staying in Malta or coming back to Napa.

It really could go either way, she said.

“If we've built roots and things are going great, then we'll stay but if not, it was a two-year adventure,” said Wear.

In just a few weeks, a 20-foot shipping container will be delivered to Wear’s driveway. She’ll load her jewelry-making equipment and workshop contents, her favorite mattress, a few of her children’s things and other must-have items, then send the container off to Malta. It will take eight to 10 weeks to arrive, she’s told.

There are no direct flights from California to Malta. Instead, Wear and her group, and the dog and two cats, will fly from San Francisco to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to the international (and only) airport on Malta.

She has already secured a work visa and could apply for permanent residency if she stays in Malta for five years, but she’s keeping her U.S. citizenship, said Wear.

Asked if she has any concerns about the move, Wear admitted she does have some “scaries.”

“One is we will, for the first time in our lives, experience being a minority,” she said. “Other concerns probably reside around the vulnerability” of being a woman and solo mom.

As a high-end jewelry designer, Wear already takes many extra security precautions, yet safety is always a concern.

She’s more focused on the benefits of living in Malta such as easy trips to other parts of Europe. For the same cost as traveling in California, “we can go to different countries. Who wouldn't want to do that?”

And if they do stay in Malta, her kids will graduate from high school at age 16, she said. They can start college and continue living that multicultural experience.

“People thought I was nuts when I moved to California. Now, Californians are thinking I'm nuts for wanting to go to Europe,” said Wear.

“Really, to me, there's no difference between moving from Indiana to California than moving from California to Malta. I can just as easily move back to the United States. I can just as easily develop roots and find another European country that is maybe more where I belong. You don't know until you try it or do it.”

“One great life; that’s all you get,” Wear said. “You gotta live it.”