MEEMAW’S HOMETOWN KITCHEN

It’s been a long road for me to get to this place.

In 2008, I was kidnapped and held hostage for five months. I was pregnant and scared. From the beginning, my ex had an ulterior motive to have a child with me. He took advantage of me, and the family said to marry him so as not to embarrass them.

When I tried to leave, he stabbed me in the abdomen. I managed to escape when my daughter was three months old, but he followed us and nearly beat me to death. Because he was well-known in the community, there were little consequences for him.

After my escape, I asked my best friend if he would be willing to act as my bodyguard. I asked, half-jokingly, but he said yes. We soon fell in love and were married after only six weeks.

He knew cooking or being in the kitchen was difficult for me because that’s where I had been attacked. So he usually did all the cooking for us.

It was unexpected when I mentioned I wanted to try to make sourdough bread. He was super supportive, but it was still a shock. After mastering bread-making, I branched out to make dinners for our Bible study. I learned I genuinely loved to feed people.

In April of 2024, we only had an extra $20 in our bank account. Starting a restaurant was honestly a laughable idea, but I told my husband if it was God’s will, it would happen.

Only a few days later, we were handed a check for the seed money to start our restaurant. I had only met this person one time, and we didn’t even know each other’s names. She sat me down and said, “God told me to write that check.”

During our first five weeks, we were just a regular restaurant. But then I felt the Lord laying it on my heart to have it be a “pay as you can” restaurant. In our sixth week, we had almost no customers, so I asked my husband if he was ready to trust God and he said yes.

We switched to paying what you can and instantly we were thriving. Our motto is, “If you don’t know what to pay, we suggest that you pray.”

Romans 12:20 says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

People tell us they are grateful to us. A few locals were worried about riff raff coming around, but otherwise it’s been good.

We named our pay as you can, restaurant MeeMaw’s Hometown Kitchen. Our middle daughter calls me MeeMaw and she says it means “love” to her. I wanted to have a place where everyone could feel loved, needed and wanted.

I give all the glory to God, and we ground ourselves in The Word. God has brought us so far. It is important to give God all the glory every day.