If it were up to the former owners, Gwyneth Lightbourne and her son, Michael, would never have held claim to Brightside Guest Apartments.

The deeds in 1955 clearly stated that the land, then home to a horse livery stable, would never be sold to a person of colour.

But it was. Michael clearly remembers seeing the “stalls and barn doors” that were a prominent part of the Flatts Inlet property in 1975 when his mother bought it with his father, Willard “Pommy” Lightbourne.

Today, there’s a beauty salon and spa that opened in January, apartments and a restaurant at 38 North Shore Road.

Inlet Stream Beauty Salon and Day Spa is the latest in a string of improvements the Lightbournes have been making since “Pommy” died in 2011.

“After my father’s passing, we decided to bring Brightside up to 21st-century standards,” Michael said. “You can’t just sell an old product to a new way of thinking.

“We wanted to remain in the tourism industry and come back with a better product.

“We built the restaurant, [leased by] Rustico’s, four years ago.

“Then I renovated the rooms upstairs to work my way around the property and improve every aspect of it.”

At the moment, the salon does ladies and men’s hair, nails and waxing.

“We are going to be expanding to full facials and massage and all the things that beauty has to offer,” Michael said.

The spa has a trendy vibe with lots of shiny surfaces and new equipment. But the layout has a certain linear feel to it.

Gwyneth and “Pommy” first noticed the property on a drive through Flatts.

“My husband said ‘should we buy that and go into tourism?’,” she said. “I said ‘whatever you say’.”

What stands out for Michael is that the deeds prohibiting sale to a person of colour were written “not too long before [he] was born”.

Gwyneth and “Pommy” met at the Central School, then parted ways when she went to study teaching in Canada.

Gwyneth’s father, barber Archibald Dillworth, died when she was 17.

“Pommy” took over the space and opened Pommy’s Barber and Beauty Shop.

“One day, Pommy started asking one of the customers in the barber shop about me,” Gwyneth said. “He told Pommy that if he wanted to know more about me, he should visit my church.”

Pommy did so, and then started courting her, mostly by charming her mother.

“He did a lot of chores for my mother around the house,” Gwyneth said. “My mother had five daughters.

“So I think she was happy to let him marry me and have me. She took a liking to him.”

They wed in August 1955 and had Michael and his two sisters, Andrea Lightbourne-Webster and Ruby Lambe.

With both a grandfather and father who were barbers, Michael feels things have come full circle.

He is now busy at the spa and also as a branch pilot, a job he has held for the past 32 years.

His father, however, eventually gave up the barber shop and went into real estate, until the 1980s when he became Bermuda’s first black immigration inspector.

Today, Michael is glad his mother is still around to provide emotional support.

“I couldn’t have done it without her,” he said.

Gwyneth said: “He has a praying mother. I pray that I will be around for a few more years to continue providing support.”