The former owner of Friendly Discount opens new convenience store, puts past behind her.

Maryanne Alhamdany said she’s never sought the spotlight, but during the past year, the former owner of Friendly Discount has had a hard time avoiding it.

Alhamdany’s private life was flung into the public eye when police officers barged into her Main Street convenience store in November 2008 and arrested her husband, Abbas Alhamdany, for trafficking in cocaine.

During his court proceedings, Maryanne Alhamdany, who grew up in Gorham, stood by her husband’s side, and when he fled to his native Iraq before being sentenced in August, she followed soon after.

But the heat and unrest of the war-torn nation proved too much for Alhamdany and their 1-year-old son to bear. And so she and her son returned to Gorham, leaving Abbas and his troubled past behind them. With a new convenience store that opened earlier this month, Alhamdany feels like she’s finally getting a fresh start.

“It will take me years to live down something I have no part of,” she said, about distancing herself from her husband’s criminal history.

Alhamdany has high hopes for the success of her new store, the Westbrook Market, on the corner of Stroudwater Street and William Clarke Drive. She thinks she’s filling a niche in the neighborhood, and has already seen business pick up, with both old friends and unfamiliar faces coming through the door.

“I’m not going to be a millionaire,” she said. “But I think I’ll be able to comfortably support myself and my son, which is a lot to ask for by itself.”

Alhamdany left for Iraq in August with the intention of staying, but it was just two weeks after arriving there that she decided she and her son Jafar had to go home.

She had been assured that since Saddam Hussein’s demise, Iraq had become a much safer place. But during her stay at her husband’s family’s home in Basra, she said, she watched newscasts reporting that car bombs had detonated in the area. When another bomb hit a nearby airport, she said, she felt the house shake.

Alhamdany insists that despite her pale skin and green eyes, she didn’t feel a personal threat to her safety, but the protective way that her husband’s family treated her indicated the real risk she and her son were facing as Americans.

Her husband’s family, Alhamdany said, treated her “like a queen.” She and Jafar were given private living quarters in a house that she said was as big as the old high school on Main Street. The home was owned by her brother-in-law, who lived there with his 10 children and two wives – a custom that Alhamdany said seemed perfectly normal.

Because she and her son hadn’t met much of her husband’s family, relatives streamed in and out of the house to see them. They took her shopping for a new hijab and jilbab, the head covering and robe traditionally worn by Muslim women. Alhamdany has practiced Muslim, her husband’s religion, for the past 14 years, and said she plans to raise their son as a Muslim.

Though Alhamdany was familiar with some customs practiced by her husband’s family, the way of life in Iraq still came as a culture shock. She got a surprise when her sister-in-law brought her to the market to get food for dinner. In addition to selecting fresh vegetables, they picked out, from a pen, the live chicken they’d eat for dinner.

“There is no Hannaford,” said Alhamdany, who admitted she prefers her meat in a package.

But Alhamdany, who speaks broken Arabic, was warned not to talk when out in public. She said her relatives told people they came across that she was Kurdish, in order to conceal her identity as an American.

And then there was the heat. A humid 120 degrees was the norm, she said, and it didn’t cool down at night.

“We bathed three to four times a day to keep down our body temperature,” Alhamdany said, but both she and her son continued to overheat.

By the end of their stay, neither of them could keep down food and both had spiked fevers. For their health and safety, she and Abbas decided together that it would be better for her and their son to leave.

After 12 years of marriage, Alhamdany and her husband are in the process of getting divorced.

Abbas Alhamdany pleaded no contest in June 2009 to charges of aggravated trafficking of cocaine and violating conditions of release. He had previously served 18 months in a federal prison after being convicted of trafficking cocaine 10 years ago. Because of that prior conviction, he was facing up to 30 years in prison for a class A felony.

But he didn’t show up for his sentencing last August, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. If he ever returned to America, he would face those charges.

Years before his arrest, Abbas Alhamdany had become known in the area as an outspoken critic of Saddam Hussein. Because of their business and his high profile, the drug charges against him drew a lot of attention. He also claimed the police were keeping a closer eye on him than other business owners because he was Iraqi. Westbrook Police Chief Bill Baker vehemently denied those claims.

When Maryanne Alhamdany opened her new store Jan. 8, she signed an agreement with the police department, saying she doesn’t believe the police’s actions were racially motivated and that her husband would in no way profit from the store. She said she has a good relationship with Baker now, and he and his officers are welcome in anytime.

“We met with her and discussed our concerns,” said Capt. Tom Roth, who doesn’t foresee issues arising now that her husband’s out of the picture.

“We welcome her as a new business,” he said.

As the store gets up and running, Alhamdany is working from open to close, 6 a.m.-9 p.m. People purposefully come in when she’s there, which they can tell by the bright yellow Pontiac Aztec parked in the lot outside – a seventh anniversary present from her husband.

“That’s my trademark,” she said.

But Alhamdany is just as well known for her outgoing and friendly demeanor from behind the cash register. As customers came into the store this week, she seemed to know every one of them.

“What’s that look for?” she teased a young man coming in for cigarettes.

“You want menthols?” she asked, grabbing for his brand.

She asked people about their jobs and their mothers, smiling and laughing all along. Her years in customer service showed.

Some of her old customers from Friendly Discount didn’t hesitate to switch to Westbrook Market for their convenience store needs – and there was a specific reason for that.

“Because of Maryanne,” Linda Constable said Wednesday, as she left Westbrook Market with a lottery ticket.

“She’s just an awesome person,” Constable said.

When Alhamdany came back from Iraq, she originally wanted to open a breakfast and lunch place. But friends feared the business would struggle in this economy, and she heeded their advice.

“They say do what you know,” Alhamdany said, and so she opened the store, at the former site of Mr. Bagel, and it’s just the small sort of place she’s always wanted.

Right now, she said, the shop has basic convenience store items, like snack food, candy, beer and wine. But soon, she hopes to bring in more specialty foods, like imported cheeses and fresh baked bread.

With the coffee bar all set up, Alhamdany would like to cater to commuters and plans to bring in a local pastry company, whenever the morning business starts to pick up. Overall, it’s been steady so far.

“Every day is better,” she said.

Maryanne Alhamdany, the former owner of Friendly Discount, has opened a new store and redemption center in Westbrook. (Staff photo by Leslie Bridgers)

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