After a robbery one month ago, Lanka Jewels seems restored and as tranquil as ever - the shop is hushed, the lighting is subdued and directed with care onto the precious stones and gold that twinkle and gleam in the polished glass cases.

But things are not as they once were.

The owners, Ken Selvaraja and his family, are emotionally bruised from the experience.

They are trying to regain their bearings after their lives were all bumped off course by an event that took a few short hours.

"We have to scramble through and start all over again," family patriarch Selvaraja said last week.

At 68, he and his wife Sandra were eyeing retirement and were well on their way to handing the 31-year-old family business in Mission over to their daughter Naomi and son Nathan.

Sometime in the early hours of May 19, thieves gained entry into the store by cutting through the wall from an adjacent business. They took about $400,000 in jewelry, custom work and high-end timepieces. Some items were irreplaceable heirlooms. (A similar heist hit a Cedar Park Place jewelry store in Abbotsford Sunday night. See page A6.)

Ken and his wife were relaxing in Arizona, starting their retirement "dream journey," he said, when he got the call from Nathan.

"All our hard work and dreams of retirement were shattered by a phone call from my son. In a choking voice he said, 'Dad . . . sorry Dad . . . you and Mum have to come home now, we had a robbery at the store,'" said Ken.

Nathan was sick at having to make that call.

"It hurt so much. I know how much work it took for them to retire. It's unfair. For me, well I'm young, [and] it's when I'm supposed to work," he said in the store last week.

What made it worse is that the store was hit once before, in November 2008, when the little shop was invaded by armed robbers, who stole about $350,000 in goods.

Selvaraja came to the jewelry business indirectly. He and Sandra were both nurses when they emigrated from the United Kingdom to Canada more than 40 years ago. In 1976, when he was just 34 years old, Selvaraja suffered a major heart attack. He knew he'd have to leave nursing at some point, so he studied the gem business and in 1979, with personal savings of $3,500 he opened Lanka Jewels in Mission. He continued nursing until he had open heart surgery in 1986, after which he concentrated on building Lanka Jewels into a speciality shop.

The police have now done their work, the mess is cleaned up, and some of the stolen goods are replaced, but the affects of the May robbery continue to ripple outward.

Selvaraja recently talked with a customer who works in the prison system, who mentioned criminals often don't think about how their crimes affect others.

"They tell him, 'we only go after business, not private homes,' but they don't understand that small businesses are family businesses," he said. "It's not like the insurance company will pay for losses and life goes on as before."

In their case, insurance matters are not yet sorted out. So to pay for replacement goods and to help cover staff wages, Selvaraja is back at the sales counter.

His wife Sandra has returned to nursing, and son Nathan, 26, is taking time from his real estate career to help his dad and sister Naomi, 31.

The ripples go further.

Selvaraja has faithfully supported family members in his native Sri Lanka for many years, but he's had to make other arrangements to keep that support going, he said.

The store had a donation box where they put aside the $5 or $10 fees for cleaning and sizing, to send to Haiti. The robbers took the $2,000 in cash, "but they left the change," noted Nathan.

Then there is the trauma of facing customers who've lost cherished pieces.

"One elderly customer had two rings here for cleaning. They were from her husband, he gave them to her 70 years ago. To her it's a treasure that can't be replaced at any cost," said Selvaraja.

And there is personal emotional turmoil for each of them. The anxiety creeps in, like it did on a recent evening when Selvaraja was home alone.

"I couldn't relax, I was almost expecting the alarm company to call. You get very anxious. You wake up in the middle of the night. You don't talk about it much, but you find yourself traumatized," he said. The event has even affected his relationship with God.

"I pray every morning, and I'm even angry at God. I mean, who can you be angry with?"

But Selvaraja tries to keep things in perspective - he and his family are still more fortunate than many in the world, he says.

He is buoyed by the exceptional kindness he's received from his customers, some who have been coming to Lanka Jewels for 30 years.

"Today a customer came in and put down $1,000 on his Christmas budget. He said 'you may need it more right now Ken than later,' " said Selvaraja.

"We'll make a go with what we are left," he said. The rest, he says, he'll leave up to God.