A local business owner has overcome adversity to open a new restaurant in Paradise.

Jennifer Laplaige is the owner of the newest Pur & Simple restaurant chain on Topsail Road in Paradise which officially opened to the public earlier this week.

Laplaige says Montreal-based Pur & Simple is committed to supporting women in business and helping to revive the loss of Canada’s female workforce following the pandemic.

Laplaige, who grew up in Dunville, Placentia Bay, moved to France with her husband where they started their family. While raising their five children, tragedy struck.

She describes the experience of suddenly becoming widowed with multiple children while living on another continent away from the support of family and friends as “brutal.”

Laplaige decided to move back to Newfoundland, something she calls “one of the hardest, and one of the best, decisions” she has ever made. She says moving back home made her realize the importance of family and unity, which gave her the strength to carry on.