Drs. Howard and Sharon Day welcome the community to Day Eye Care’s Patient Appreciation Day on Thursday. The business is celebrating 90 years in operation.

Earlier this week, a patient of Dr. Sharon Day told the doctor that she had treated the patient’s mother the day before.

That is nothing unusual at Day Eye Care.

“It’s very common that we’ll see members of several generations of families,” Day said. “That’s one of the things I love most about doing this.”

Day Eye Care of Gardendale is celebrating its ninetieth anniversary this year. The business is thanking patients on Thursday with a Patient Appreciation Day.

“We’ve been blessed. The community and our patients have blessed us,” said Dr. Howard Day. “We very much appreciate that. They are the reason we’ve been able to do this for 90 years.”

Howard Day knew since age 16 that he would be an optometrist.

“I’ve done every job in the office,” he said. “I started out cutting the grass.”

By age 15, he was helping manufacture glasses.

“I just kind of grew up doing this,” he said. “It’s one of the few things you can do where you can immediately help someone.”

Howard Day said he enjoys watching customers put on a pair of glasses or contact lenses and say, “I can see the leaves on the trees,” or, “I can read my Bible now.”

Day is proud of his family business and of his ancestors who survived difficult times to sustain the business.

“My grandfather survived the Great Depression. My father survived three recessions,” he said. “So far, we’re surviving this recession.”

Day Eye Care is now serving the fourth generation of families who have stayed faithful to the business.

Day Eye Care got its start in Birmingham, when Dr. F.J. Day Sr. began practicing optometry in 1920 on First Avenue North, according to a press release. Day “was one of the first optometrists to be licensed in Alabama,” the release stated.

Thirty years later, F.J. Day’s son Dr. Jim H. Day Sr. joined his brother, Dr. Frances Day, in the family business.

Jim Day later started his own business in north Birmingham, moving to Gardendale in 1969.

“Continuing the family legacy, Drs. Howard and Sharon Day joined the practice in 1988,” the press release stated. The husband and wife team built a new facility in 2008 off of Fieldstown Road.

They have two children: Margaret Day and Russell Day.

“We are trying to recruit from the next generation,” Howard Day said with a laugh.

Patient Appreciation Day at Day Eye Care, at 137 W. Shugart Ridge Rd. in Gardendale, is Thursday, 2-6 p.m.

The community is invited to attend. Guests can enjoy refreshments and be eligible for prizes and special savings.

Frame representatives will also be on hand, the release stated.