“When I work alone, I’m really not alone,” the business owner said, her gaze sweeping over the shelves of straight-backed toys standing at attention before her.

At Right Away Restoration and Cleaning, on the west side of Alpena, a collection of 194 nutcrackers fills a long, low shelf along one wall and creeps up onto a small shelf above. Wooden teachers, doctors, Santa on a motorcycle, a pirate, a pixie, all with working nutcracker mouths, keep Sauve company during the Christmas season, a tradition she and her customers have come to cherish.

The jaw-dropping display is a regular treat for the business’s customers, who sometimes stop by during December to enjoy looking at the toys or to drop off a new addition to the collection they’ve found on a Christmas clearance rack.

A threesome of animal-headed nutcrackers, purchased impulsively while shopping after-Christamas sales with her mother-in-law, started the collection nearly 30 years ago.

A diverse assortment of nutcracker figurines are seen here.

“It just kept growing and growing and growing,” Sauve said, gently tapping the cap of one straight-legged soldier.

More nutcrackers are added every year, an easy gift to give the avid collector who won’t say no to a new addition to the family. She is hoping to top 200 this year, which, she said, she doesn’t think will be hard.

The toys, with their painted-on expressions and delicate details, have become like old friends to Sauve and her daughter. Their early-December setup of the display has become a holiday tradition as the two of them pull the nutcrackers from their storage tubs, removing each one carefully from its protective bubble wrap, setting them up on the floor by height, and exclaiming as they encounter favorites and rediscover forgotten figures.

Some fit the classic image of the traditional children’s toy, sharply dressed in a military coat and boots, with a tall soldier’s hat and elaborate, painted-on moustache.

Most of the nutcrackers in the collection, though, have a style all their own.

An oversized knight with wild eyes keeps watch over a pint-sized sailor in yellow rain gear. A diva and a cave man pose near an artist and the characters from “The Wizard of Oz.”

“The baker, can’t forget him,” Sauve said, patting the mustachioed toy in his poofed hat, carefully placed next to the gingerbread man.

A bride and groom caught her attention.

“You deserve each other,” she told them, smoothing the bride’s veil. “You’re both kinda funny-looking.”

As the 194 wooden characters stood quietly, Sauve picked up one after another, telling stories, pointing out intricate details, marvelling over the time it took to make each one.

“All that detail, and they sell it for 14 bucks,” she said.

In German tradition, the owner explained, a nutcracker was considered a symbol of good luck, often given as a gift to promote safety in a home.

“I should be very safe,” she said, looking over her collection.

Safety is something Sauve doesn’t take for granted. The business of her business is cleaning up after significant — and sometimes crushing — life events of others. Sewer backup, biohazard contamination, floods, fires — homes and property can be damaged in all sorts of ways, Sauve said.

Her job is to help with the aftermath, offering cleanup, repair, and emotional support through a traumatic time.

“The light’s at the end of the tunnel,” Sauve tells her customers as they struggle with the loss of treasured items and the unease of insecurity that come after a traumatic event. “It’s coming. It’s not a train. And it’ll get better.”

Though she treats her customers’ belongings as though each one is precious, coaxing apart stuck photographs and cleaning tiny spaces with a toothbrush, “you can’t fix everything” after a tragedy, Sauve admits.

Sometimes, you have to choose to just keep the memory.

The nutcrackers on Sauve’s shelf will always be hers, even if they are ever lost, well-preserved in photo and video, and treasured, one at a time, every Christmas.

Bending over her charges, Sauve talked to them, affection in her voice.

“Look at that nose. Holy cow, she needs a nose job,” she said, gently patting a ballerina on the head. Down the shelf, a frog nutcracker held a chalkboard bearing the number 194. It’s how she keeps track when another new toy comes in.

“Otherwise you’ve gotta count ’em,” she said. “And who wants to do that?”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.