'I Just Wanted Joy': Oklahoma Woman Leaves Career In Nursing To Open Bakery Of Her Dreams

A Talala woman followed her dreams and opened a bakery in Collinsville after years in a different career.

"I am doing this no matter what it takes,” Heather Blackwood, owner of Heather B’s Sweets, said. “I am opening a bakery."

Blackwood only opened last week, but her passion for baking sweets started when she was just a kid.

"I was pretty young, probably in middle school and my grandma would let me use the stove and obviously she was right there the whole time, but I got to make a mess, grandma was not, there was flour all over the floor, flour all over our aprons, she let me wear an apron, which is probably why I wear one now and I just really liked that,” Blackwood said.

Before opening the shop, for more than a decade, Blackwood worked as an oncology nurse, treating cancer patients at the Oklahoma Cancer Specialists and Research Institute.

"Being an oncology nurse, there's sadness, there's disappointment, there's also resilience and incredible human spirit you know so there's reasons you stay but it also there are times when it doesn't work,” Blackwood said. “I just wanted joy. I just needed some joy."

She found the joy she needed in baking and says opening her own shop was a leap of faith.

"I never wanted to leave nursing, I just wanted something else too,” Blackwood said. “People really liked my stuff and I really liked making things people like."

Blackwood thinks it's never too late to change your path.

Sometimes you just need the right recipe.