DECATUR - AC/DC is on a turned-down, in-store radio belting out "Highway to Hell," but clearly, the aging merchants of metal have never met store owner Merry Berry, who is busy building a thrifty stairway to heaven.

That's what her customers think over at Berry's Thrift Shop & Tanning, perhaps the most extreme example of business diversification we've seen in this vicinity.

One side of her Decatur operation is taken up by four tanning beds, with enough exotic lotions to lubricate the deep frying of Central Illinois several times over. The other side is devoted to the thrift store, with racks of new and gently used men's, women's and children's clothes, plus handbags, fashion accessories, household items and even a few things the multitalented Berry has made, such as a birdhouse built from century-old barn wood.

It's all contained in a spotlessly clean, shiny environment, with walls painted a delicate blue, complemented by crisp, white ceilings.

Customers with an urge to bronze and a passion to shop well but frugally say visiting this place is like stepping into the front vestibule of heaven.

"It's a rush," said Karen Stephenson, who lives two blocks away and finds heaven's location convenient. "I take a 15-minute nap on the tanning bed, and it's like you regenerate. Seriously, it's better than a psychiatrist.

You feel so much better."

Tan

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And, transfigured, you arise and shop.

"I've bought shoes here; I've bought a couple of blouses; I've bought some jewelry and they have watches, too," Stephenson said. "I ended up buying three watches. I don't need three watches, but I bought them. She's got something different in all the time, and it's just so nice to shop here."

Another blissful customer, Phyllis Golden, pointed out her outfit of shirt, jeans and shoes and said she bought it all between tans.

"Everything I'm wearing, I bought here at the thrift store," Golden said. "Well, maybe not the underwear. And I usually tan about twice a week. I love it here."

Berry, 44, explained that she took over a somewhat rundown tanning salon three years ago after a severe bout of a debilitating illness drew a line under her corporate career as an accounts payable manager. The disease had left her so far down a personal highway to hell that she needed endless determination and lots of physical therapy just to learn to walk again after being bedridden for 18 months.

Deciding to run her own business was how she repurposed herself and took out a new lease on life.

"I wanted a business where I could help other people," she said. "Most everybody who knows me knows that is what I am all about."

A year ago, she decided to pull out half the tanning beds, four of them, and open the thrift half of the enterprise.

"I discussed it with my husband, Roger, and I said I really think that if I had a chance, I could make thrift work," she said. "I introduced it because of the economy. I used to have to dress up at my job continuously, and I've always used thrift to find clothes and keep it affordable."

At 4-foot-10 and 106 pounds, Berry is a vital spark who flashes around the inside of her store, showing off items, many new, that she hunts down on venues like eBay in a life that appears to allow very little time for sleep. She also works part time in catering and doing other odd jobs to help support her business, which she dreams of moving to a bigger and more prominent address one day.

She has no doubts that will happen and talks of the future with the profound sense of optimism she says she has carried in front of her like a torch since she was born Christmas Day 1964 to the Neilson family. The high-spirited doctor who delivered the newborn suggested her first two names should be "Merry Christmas," and so it came to pass.

"When I was young, though, I changed my middle name to Christine," she explained. "I mean, you try going around with a name like 'Merry Christmas.' "

Fate wasn't done with her yet, however, as Mr. Right turned out to be Mr. Berry. But his tanned and thrifty wife, now surrounded by happy customers in the diversified Shangri-La he helped her remodel, says she is more than happy to jingle all the way through her remaining days as Merry Berry.