Amy Crenshaw’s Cafe: Where The Homeless and Bankers Eat Together (Pt 2)

Amy and her husband Jim adopted 6 kids. And because Amy apparently didn’t have enough on her plate, she then founded ComeUnity Cafe in Jackson, TN. The non-profit, donation-based cafe has a suggested donation amount and if you can’t afford it, you can volunteer there for your meal. This extraordinary model enables everyone to break bread together and be in community with one another. 

Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premium

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.
And we continue with part two of our conversation with
Amy Crenshaw right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors.

(00:32):
All right, so day one you open, you shared a death.
How do people in the community even know? How do
the homeless know? And how do the non homeless know
what the world's going on? It's a community cafe, but
how does everybody know? I guess you have to walk

(00:54):
in and figure it.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Out, you do. You kind of had to walk in
and figure it out. Now, there were.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
People, I mean, I guess I'm I'm imagine some lawyer
walking in and right behind them some homeless dude and
they both had to been looking at each other like
what's going on?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah. Well, at that time we had I had the
sweetest little old lady and no kidding, she was old.
She was probably I'm thinking she was like eighty five.
She was a friend's grandmother that came and volunteered to
be our greeter. So she had this whole little thing
and it said, hey, welcome to community cafe. And she'd say,

(01:32):
do you know anything about us? And they'd say no,
and she'd say, well, we're a nonprofit, donation based cafe.
We believe everybody's entitled to great, healthy food. So what
that means is, if you can't afford a meal, come
on in. Volunteer for anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour,
and then you come around the counter and you order
your lunch, just like everybody else's ordering their lunch. Come in,

(01:55):
have a seat.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh, and volunteer first.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Right right, Ah, there's there's a caveat to that. You know,
a lot of times if somebody comes in and says
I'm starving or I'm freezing to death, I always feed them.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
But the idea is volunteer first.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Volunteer first, because we've actually had a couple of people
walk out, you know, after they've eaten. So volunteer.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
And does that make you angry?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Not, Why wouldn't it You know, I don't mean angry
for you. Yeah, it may. It would make me angry
that they're taking from other people. You need it now.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
It makes me, yes, it's righteous angry. It makes me
angry for the fellow person.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, on the street, that's what I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
The person that sleeps in the next to them makes
it's exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
It does unbelievable selfishness to people who are trying to
help you.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Right, And because I have no social background, it has
taken me, and I learned something every day. It has
taken me a lot of time to learn what the
right responses are to that. It has taken Would you
ban him? We? Well, I was just getting ray. We've
banned a couple people. Should Yes, we absolutely have banned

(03:08):
a couple people. I can only think of four in
the nine years that we banned. And I have one
little fellow that calls me mama and he'll come in
and he actually pulled a knife on somebody, So I
have banned him for life.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
He pulled a knife.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't think he really Yeah, was.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
He cutting up of salisbury steak?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
No, he just went in the kitchen and yeah, got
a knife, and yeah, I be mad at one of
our other volunteers.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Part of what we have to talk about is not
only these folks homeless, A lot of them probably have
been at Oh.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes, absolutely, And he definitely does and calls me mama,
and I'll see him out on the street and go, Mama,
can I come to work today? I promise I'll behave
and you know, I'll kill him. Come on in and
I'll get you something to drink. You know, I'll get
you a hot cup of coffee or you know whatever.
So and we usually I'll send him out with the
soup or something like that. We really try real hard,

(04:00):
and I can't think of I really can't think of
anybody that we have actually turned away with nothing.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
But here's the thing. You've got to have enough people
coming in that are paying above to cover the people
that we're talking about right now. And you know, I
guess this is the I would say, the realist in me.
But also, unfortunately, when you're in business for thirty years

(04:36):
and everything else, you've seen, you've seen some of the
greatest of the humanity, but you've seen some of the worst.
And I just I'm envisioning how many people are out
there that are working every day. I mean, let's be honest,
there's a stigma around the homeless. They're stinky, they're lazy,

(04:56):
they're mentally sick, they want something for nothing. And again
I'm saying the stigma right what I'm repeating absolutely, and
when I'm working and paying my bills and taking care
of my kids and build my house, note, Why do
I want to take my one hour of lunch break
to go sit down and eat with people who I

(05:17):
feel that way about?

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:19):
So how does that work? How do you how do
you get those people to do that?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And how do they come in or why do they
come back every day we have?

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah, that's how does that work?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Well, you need to come see the cafe.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well I can't, neither can everybody else listen, So you've
got to tell them.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
So I'm going to tell you when we decide.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh I can, I will come see the cafe. But
you need to but all the thousands of people and sisters.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Right, So what I'm going to tell you is that
people will walk in the door. I had one guy
who is a local singer. He does a lot in Europe,
and he walked in one day. His wife brought him
in or said, you know, you need to go in.
His wife lives in Jackson. They live in Jackson, and

(06:04):
he walked in and he got teary eyed and he said,
did I take a wrong turn? Are we in Jackson, Tennessee?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's what I'm talking about?

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, And it's not because I mean, I'm sixty three
years old, so I'm not the hippus of people, you know,
but it has got It's just it's a happy place.
There's glass on two sides up front. Our logo at
the bottom says to love, to feed, to dignify. It's bright,

(06:34):
it's white. I've got great artwork. And one of the
things that I said was I want people to feel
like they're coming and having lunch or dinner at my house.
So we will have glasses on the table, we will
have salt and pepper shakers on the table. We'll eat
on real plates, we'll have real forks, we'll have our

(07:00):
lat weear wrapped in a napkin, you know, and just
we'll have flowers or plants on the table, and we're
gonna treat them like they're at home or at my house.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
I get it. That still doesn't answer how a guy
in a suit and tie that's attorney downtown, YEP, wants
to go to a place where he's gonna sit next
to some.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Homeless And you know what the really amazing thing is
is that we've got six tables that are almost this length.
We call them our community table.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
This length is probably eighteen people.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, sorry, that's right, you mean the people listening can't
see that.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, we're at a large conference room table that's five
feet wide eighteen feet Yes.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
So we've got five or six community tables that my
husband built. We've got gorgeous furniture in there, handmade. My
husband actually made all the tables in there, yep. And
those tables fill up. We do also have some tables
that are four tops that also fill up.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
But the point is the community tables fill up with
homeless and non homeless eating right there together. That is
so amazing, people know.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I mean, the name of the cafe community came from
coming to unity, and that was one of the things
that we set out to be, was a bridge in
the community between for lack of better words, the haves
and the have nots, or you know, the Christian and
the Muslim, the you know.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Black and white, black and white, the Asian and Ethiopia Asian.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
I mean whatever, you know, different groups of people you
can think of, and and it works, it really does.
I mean my our regular customers, and when I say
regular customers, I mean almost every day. We have one
elderly couple that she had to drag her husband in,

(09:03):
but I told her, I said, if you can drag
him in, and this has probably been seven years ago.
Said if you can drag him in, I'll feed him
and he'll like our food.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Tell me why didn't want to come, because no.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
He didn't want that healthy food.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Oh, he didn't want that healthy food. He wanted fried chicken.
This is the that's right. Yeah, okay, So anyway, she
drug him in.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
She drug him in. He's been there every day since
she went through a spell of cancer and was up
at Vanderbilt for probably six or eight weeks. He still
came in every day. The daughter was up there with
the mom, and he came in every day and ate
lunch with us.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
How many people a day are you serving? And what
are your hours?

Speaker 2 (09:42):
We're only opened Monday through Friday eleven to two. We
start taking volunteers, so you're open.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
It's lunch lunch, that's it.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
We used to do a brunch on Saturdays and that
kind of went by the wayside. Just we have a
real small staff, and it was wearing them.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
It makes sense. Yes, is your staff also your children?
I bet your family works.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
There, right, They will volunteer there, So that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
They're all in and out.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
And when they were little you know ten years ago
when we were starting to open the place. I mean
they were down there with me, you know, putting in
the Uree said yes, yes, I mean we we we
stripped the floors in there. You know, we had this
big old Sander thing, you knowing.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, so how many people do you serve?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
So we serve between you know, it was really weird
there for a while. Seventy was a busy day when
we first opened. It was one hundred and twenty a day,
easy for year and a half, two years. Then I
kind of think we weren't the new kid on the
block any Yeah, yeah, we weren't the new kid on
the block anymore. We are back to serving. Seventy is

(10:51):
kind of a slow day. Yeah, it's more like eighty
five to ninety five.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Okay, well let's just say let's say eighty Okay, how
many of the eighty I'm calling them. There's three tiers.
There's the I got no money and got a volunteer tier.
That's tier one. Tier two is I got some money,
but not enough to help out anybody else. And then
you got tier three, which is I'm gonna buy my

(11:17):
food and pay over right, what percent is one two
and three.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, one percent has stayed. It's the craziest thing because
it has been across the years. Twelve to fifteen percent.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Twelve to fifteen percent of.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Our customers are customers that are working exclusively for their meal,
volunteering for their meal.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
And number two is I can only afford mind barely.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, and that's not a huge number. I mean, I
will have somebody come in and go, I've only got
four dollars and I'm like, okay, order whatever you five percent?

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, yeah, So you're telling me about eighty percent of
the people that eat in this place pay.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Over their They pay at least And you know, when
we were when we first opened, people were very generous.
And I'm not saying they're not generous now.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
But.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
They would.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
It was kind of a new thing, and it was
kind of like, Okay, here's an extra five bucks or
here's an extra ten bucks. Most of the time now
it is they will order two items, which we have
a suggested donation because we just let people prices. We
don't have prices on the menu, so people usually stand
there and kind of look, I have no clue what

(12:32):
to do here, and we'd go, well, we had we
do have a suggested donation if you'd like to know
what that is. It's seven dollars for one item, whether
it be soup, salad, or sandwich, even though we all
know that it doesn't cost seven dollars to make a
bowl of soup. But you know, on the other hand,
you get our sandwich, which we use Boar said, Deli meat,
which is the best of the.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, so one item seven dollars. Two items whether it
be soup, salad or same it's salad is nine dollars,
and three items is eleven dollars and that includes a beverage.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Let me tell you that's cheap.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
It's cheap. And we've only raised our suggested donation one time.
That one time. Yeah, we have worked really really hard
during the last you know, two years to keep keep
our costs, you know, at our donation prices.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
My expectation would be then that you'd get the underserved.
The fifteen underserved must revere this place, I mean, they
must really appreciate its existence.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I think they really do. I think they really do.
And like I said, we've had a couple that have,
you know, come in and tried to take advantage of
the situation. And we have one.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Any anything you do to help out disadvanced communities, there's
always going to be exactly an issue here and there.
It's it's it's an parent to that kind of work.
But if you let a couple of small issues interrupt
the work you're doing for a much bigger issue, well,
I mean that's expected. Yep, and move on, yep, get

(14:12):
over it. Yep.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
And you know, at first, we really required people, even
if they could only give us ten minutes or so,
we basically required them to come in and show, you know,
some effort in volunteering. We also have gotten to know
that clientele. And like we have one elderly gentleman that
comes in and he doesn't eat much anyways, and he'll

(14:36):
come in and we see him coming and we'll, you know,
my the chef will automatically just wrap up a sandwich
for him and hand it to him. You know, there's
just some out there that are not capable of working.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Do you, boy, This may be a charged question, but
I you know, just my just human. Do you ever
worry that you're fostering in some people an unhealthy sense
of entitlement to free food? No?

Speaker 2 (15:12):
I don't, because we don't do it that very often,
and we do. I mean, you know of the twelve
to fifteen percent, probably not even you know of the
twelve to fifteen percent that come in and volunteer for
that meal their meal, only one or two of them
a week is actually a meal that we just hand out.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
That's phenomenal. And you know what, that's.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Everybody's Yes, everybody's willing to work. I have a gentleman
in a wheelchair. We've had several people in wheelchairs.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
People in wheelchairs. How does that work?

Speaker 2 (15:46):
It does, believe me, they have their wheelchairs. Well, they
may be they may be not truly homeless, they may
be is way sure right, and they'll come in and
they all insist that they can do something. So we
have order cards. We are real simple. We have an
order card that is laminated and we purposely have kept

(16:08):
those order cards because it creates a job for some
of those that want to do something but aren't able
to do any more than that.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Well, then the flip side of the entitlement thing, which
is the negative side that you could see, the positive
side that you can see is it gives somebody a
sense of dignity to be able to earn their food
rather than stand in the line with a handout, which
exactly the vast majority of people I found, they really
don't want to do that. No, you're right, And this
way they feel dignified it and what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
And again that's in our logo to love, to feed,
to dignify. And most of them will tell you that
one of the reasons they keep coming back is one.
They'll tell you it keeps me out of trouble. I'm
off the street and the food's good, and the food's great.
That's usually number one. The food's great, it keeps me
off the street. And three, almost all of them have

(17:03):
said at one time or another, it lets me give
back to the community that is given to me.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
That is awesome. Yeah, and don't you think just a
little bit of it is is to be able to
go into a restaurant and be surrounded by people that
treat them kindly as human beings is uplifting for their soul.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
They don't feel like losers.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, And I will say I have never seen anybody,
if anything, our paying customers have they They care more
about the people that are coming to volunteer. If one

(17:49):
of our volunteers hasn't shown up for a while. Somebody
will come up to me and say, hey, what happened
to Joe Wow? Or Hey what happened to so and so?

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Fun?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
They want to know what it really is?

Speaker 1 (17:59):
A community?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
It is a community.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
It is We'll be right back. I've hit on it

(18:21):
a couple of times and and and I think it's
I think candidly it's it's maybe because maybe I'm jaded
about it, but you know, I continue to have this
image of a banker and a suit, uh, and a

(18:43):
lawyer and maybe an architect or people who we are,
a doctor or nurse or someone we would think more
from a professional setting sitting at a community table with
some local homeless and how odd that really is. And

(19:06):
when I when I, when I think a little more
deeply about that, for more of a thirty thousand foot view,
that is, uh, that's exactly what we really have become
socially is polarized. Is that you know, the idea of
a community where the blue collar, the white collar, and

(19:28):
the middle income all go to school together and do
things together politically, socially, religiously, we've just become so clannish
and so polarized and so separated that it's just hard
for me to even imagine this eclectic group of people
sitting around eating lunch at community cafe. I think it's beautiful,

(19:50):
but I guess, I guess I've been conditioned to think
that that's just not something that would normally happen. Yet
you're proving it is, and I just can't help but wonder.
You're obviously very smart, and you have a worldview. You
have children from three different continents. I've heard you say

(20:12):
you're a Christian, but I've also heard you say that
doesn't matter in the big scheme of things to who
each of the cafe, So you obviously have a large worldview.
What do you think it's us about your little cafe
in Jackson, Tennessee, and who's dining together? And how a

(20:36):
typical that is? What do you think what do you
think is a greater social narrative regarding that?

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Gosh, I don't even know what to say about it,
except that you know when you see it, and you
know it's kind of weird, because you know, I'd like
to say that when I see it, you know, people
coming together, that it's not always obvious, but it's but

(21:09):
it's pretty obvious. Yeah, and it's really obvious that that people,
I think are you know. What I'm seeing is that
people are really willing to sit and dine with somebody
that they would not have maybe even crossed paths with,

(21:33):
except in the cafe or out on the street. But
the street's not always the best place, you know, it's hey,
how are you today, you know whatever, But just to
see people one of my volunteers sitting by himself, you know,
waiting on his lunch to come, and maybe he's even
planned on taking it with him to go, and somebody

(21:55):
will come up and say, hey, can I join you
for lunch at a big table? And other table empty,
and then I also think of another uh, six or
seven guys and guys and gals, an older couple that
I'm not even sure they knew this man. But now

(22:16):
if if they're all in the cafe together, they're all
sitting together, they've all become friends. They all know that,
you know, the first one to come in, they'll sit
at the table, and they'll be sure that they sit
at one of the big tables. So they are friends
that they've made at the cafe that aren't anywhere.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
With people that are with the today's societal preconceived notion says,
don't belong at.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
A table together, right, exactly exactly. An older a very
wealthy retired couple, you know, a banker, a fellow that's
living in uh subsidized housing.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
You know, it's just all sitting there, eating together.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
All sitting there, eating together and having deep conversation. Not
just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
They're sitting there saying hi, They're.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Exactly exactly, I mean, having very deep conversation.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Isn't it interesting that despite all the political and societal
rhetoric that at the end of the day, what breaks
it down there's a cup of.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Soup, yeah, yeah, or a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
A cup of coffee or solid yeah, it's it's it's phenomenal.
And and if you think about it, I mean, you
provide a place that's safe to.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Do that, yeah, And that's yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
And maybe that maybe the greater social narrative is part
of our division and separation is because we don't have
a safe place to exchange those ideas exactly and conversation.
So I think so, so maybe we need to turn
the Capitol Building into a big old community cafe in.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
DC why not?

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Or our libraries, you know, or are Yeah, you know,
I think about going into the library, and you know,
because oftentimes, you know, people that are looking for shelter
will go hang out in library. They're kind of over there,
you know, and you don't want your children to go
over there. Come on, children, let's go to the so

(24:20):
But I think people are becoming I honestly do think that.
I don't know since when, but I have seen that
that people are more willing to actually engage and have
a conversation.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah. That gives me some hope.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
And even a hard conversation. I mean, you know, I've
heard conversations where I think of one gentleman in particular
that comes in the cafe almost every day as a
painting customer, that will sit and ask one of our homeless,
truly homeless, how'd you end up? How'd you end up
on the streets? And most of the time, you know,

(25:02):
he's had a conversation or two with them, he's seen
them over time, he's earned that right to actually delve
into deeper conversation, and he doesn't feel afraid and therefore
to ask those hard questions. And therefore that person doesn't feel,
you know, afraid to tell or insulted, or afraid to say, well,

(25:26):
you know, I made stupid choices.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
But the growth that comes from that, instead of looking
a homeless person as a drag on society and looking
at him as a human right and understanding their story. Yes,
you know, pretty much all of us are a couple
of mistakes away from being right there too.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Absolutely, absolutely, And.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
To find a place that can serve them and give
them dignity is beautiful. And I think it's so interesting
that the eclectic collection of people sitting around a couple
of soup having those conversas stations is so telling about
what's missing in our society today. Yes, so I imagine with

(26:16):
all the people that pass in and out of the
doors of the cafe, there's there's ample opportunity for you
to also mentor in the in the small way. I
know you're not running a cafe and in a social
work place, but it's ample opportunity. Have you been able

(26:36):
to Have you been able to help some of the
folks that are volunteers at the cafe to find steady
employment and forever homes and things like that.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Absolutely, Most of the time, when I think about ones
that we've helped out. It's usually been we we have
in the past had social work interns from the colleges
around and that's always a great well, that's it's incredible.
I love having them. As a matter of fact, I'm
just sitting here thinking I'm supposed to get in touch

(27:06):
with somebody about getting one for January, so that I'm
glad I'm here thinking about it. But we have had
the good fortune to have some community service volunteers or
some social work interns that have come in and set
up programs just where they'll help somebody write a resume

(27:28):
or fill out a job application, give them job skills.
And I think of one fella, and it's been more
than one, but I think of one fella in particular
that has been volunteering probably since almost the beginning, that
has had permanent employment. Now he's been let go from
a couple of places, but he never has trouble finding

(27:49):
a job and he probably has been working seven years.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, And you know, I think of a couple other
guys that I don't even see anymore because they don't.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
They I mean in the greatest sense, they don't need
you exactly exactly. But that's but that's great news.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Occasionally they'll pop in and say hey, but don't see
them on a regular basis because most of the time
they work, you know, they'll end up working nights at
a factory or something like that and sweep from where
they were exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
And that's another fantastic reward. Ye, amazing, they're In my
experience coaching football, there have been highs, there have been lows.
Thirty years of it, around thirty years of kids. There's

(28:40):
always highs and us there's always excitement and sadness and
everything else. And there are a few times that that
just emotionally, I was so touched. Do you have you
have a story from your time at community cafe that
is just deeply emotionally touching to you, that that that
kind of speaks to the depth of the cafe. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
One in particular, there's two stories that I think of,
and one one is very short. I'll share it. First.
There was a young gentleman I'd never seen before. The
Greyhound bus station used to be right across the street
from us. It is now Dozy place. Yeah, it's really cool.

(29:25):
But anyways, the bus station was right there. This fellow
walked in the cafe and it was freezing. It was
just a couple years ago, probably two years ago. Came
in the cafe and he had on short sleeves and
he had on blue jeans and tennis shoes and nothing.
It was literally freezing. I mean it was probably twenty
degrees at.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
I guess is he just got out of jail.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
He had just gotten out of jail, had been dropped.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Let him out of jail without a jacket?

Speaker 2 (29:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
I mean, look, I know he paid his debt to
society exactly, and I know society can't provide you a house.
They're going to have your bus ticket and fifty bucks whatever.
But at least a jacket when it's freezing outside.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, and exactly. And you know, if nothing else, I mean,
if if somebody can't pay for it, I mean, if
the community can't or the government can't pay for a
jacket or a sweater at least for these people, all
they have to do is say, hey, let's you know,
maybe that's something that somebody could start. I just had this.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Idea exactly, jackets for felons.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Jacket fellon, but seriously, why not? I mean I have
people all the time that call and want to, you know,
bring you know, clothing, jackets, jackets and hats and stuff
like that. So why not.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
So this young man gets off.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
The he comes in and he is what community cafe
is just right? Because I don't know if I don't
know if the bus station was open. I guess it
probably was, but he and I don't know if they're
if maybe they weren't allowed to just you know, linger
in the bus station. And he knew nothing about Jackson.

(31:03):
He had come into Jackson for a party or something
like that, or to visit a friend was at a party.
I think probably got thrown in jail for public drunkenness,
did his time, got out, was trying to head back
to wherever he was from. I don't even remember where
it was, and had on a red T shirt and
blue jeans and tennis shoes and it was freezing out

(31:23):
and he was sitting there and he said, can I
have Can I have a cup of coffee? And I
said absolutely, you can have a cup of coffee. I said,
let me get you some coffee. And he said, what
is this place? So I told him and he said,
can I volunteer? And I said, I tell you what
I said. You can volunteer, but not until we get
you warmed up. And I went downstairs. It was one

(31:46):
of those times that somebody had dropped off blankets and
you know, stuff like that, which a lot of people
will do, especially in the winter. And I went downstairs
and dug through what we had and I got Hi
my hat, and I got him gloves, and I got
him a scarf, and I got him a jacket. I
got him a blanket, and I wrapped him up. And
he looked at me and he said, I haven't been
treated like this since my grandmother died. And I thought

(32:10):
I was going to lose it. I thought I was
just going to open up and week right then. He
was probably early thirties or so.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
You know, that means he hadn't felt.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Loved exactly his grandma exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
And did you tell him I'm not old enough to
be your grandmother? Shut up?

Speaker 2 (32:31):
I did, Hey, Hey, are you telling me what yourandmother?

Speaker 1 (32:37):
That is the sweetest thing it did.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, it really touched he was.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
He tearing up? Was he almost emotional just being yes?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
He was, Yes, he was very emotional. And he sat
there and he got warm and he drank up of
coffee and he had another cup of hot water, just
holding it to keep it to get his hands warm,
and and he said, okay, what can I do? And
he went to work for about thirty forty minutes and
I said, okay, it's time for you to eat. I said,
your bus is going to be here in about forty

(33:08):
five minutes. I said, you need you need to eat
and get it get out of here. And when he
got ready to go, he came up and he said,
I'd really like to hug you. And I said, you're
welcome to hug me. And I said, and I'd really
like to pray for you. And you know, when people
come into the cafe, they will frequently ask if we're

(33:29):
a Christian ministry, or you know, if everybody in there's Christians.
And I'm kind of like, well, why does that really matter?
And I'll say, no, you know, not everyone in here
is that I know that I know of, but my
family and I, yeah, I were Christians, and you know,
but it says it there on the door to love,
to feed, to dignify, and that's what we're trying to do.

(33:51):
And I had never felt called to pray for somebody,
but I really am, truly felt the Holy Spirit saying
you need to ask this man if you can pray
for him. And I asked him. He said, I wish
you would so Anyways, that was one and then the
second time was one of the gentlemen that we had

(34:13):
my family had gotten to know through Church without Walls
before the cafe opened. Was kind of like the bad
dude in downtown Jackson. His street name was Cadillac, and
everybody was afraid of Cadillac. And everybody wanted to warn
me about Cadillac. You know that guy that's back there
washing your dishes. You know, you better watch out for him.
He's a he's a snake, you know. And I was like,

(34:35):
I've known Cadillac for about four years. Cadillac. If if
I was down here, you know, one evening and left
the cafe, if I was down here working, you know,
and was leaving the cafe and got in trouble, Cadillac
would probably come from, you know, out of nowhere like
Superman to save you know me. He loved he was

(34:56):
so attracted to my family that I know that man
would have done anything for us. Well, he was going
to get to go see his mother in Gary, Indiana,
and was a person in Johnson, and yes, completely homeless.
And I knew where he stayed a lot of the

(35:17):
time because he would ask us if we could buy
him some kerosene. I guess it is for a kerosene
heater in the winter. And I'd say, well, you know Cadillac, like,
I said, Well, we only called him Cadillac outside of
the cafe. I told him, I said, you can't use
your street name in here, so you can come on outside.
No I never did that, but we didn't. We didn't.

(35:39):
We don't allow them to use street names inside. So anyways,
I just told him, I said, Kenneth, I said, you
know I can. I can loan you some money for
some kerosene, but I'm going to go buy it for you.
You know, how's that sound? Because one, I don't I
don't like to make a habit of just handygout money.
Now bus passes will occasionally do and whatnot. But I said,
I'll loan it to you. I said, but I need

(36:01):
you back here, you know, on Friday, and you're going
to help just close down or something like that. And
he was like, okay, okay, I'll be more. Yes, that'd
be great. So anyways, we and I knew where he'd
stay because my husband would usually drop it off or oor,
my older son would.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Drop it off.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
So anyways, he was supposed to go to Gary, Indiana
to see his mom one weekend. And this was on
like a Wednesday, and he said, I really need some help,
he said, I promise if you can help me, he said,
And he said I need my medications refilled. And I said, well,
yeah I can. And he wasn't asking me to pay
for him because he got no. He it was just no.

(36:41):
You know, I don't think that Kenneth really had any
mental health issues. I just think he had he had
just made a lot of really bad choices in his
life and he would yeah, and he would tell you that,
and he was probably in his fifties.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Well, I was just wondering if the medicine was like lithium, right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
No, no, no, it was this blood pressure medication and something else.
And he was using drugs. I mean, we knew that.
And I had several times said Kenneth, you can't come
in today. You know I can tell you've been using something. Yeah,
and he always understood, okay, okay, I'll be back tomorrow
or something like that. So anyways, he asked me if
I would get his medications refilled. He said, I just

(37:22):
need a way to get him and I said sure.
I said, give me you know your prescription, and I said,
I'll get him refilled for you. I'll have him down
here no later than Friday, I said, cause I know
you're leaving Saturday or Sunday. We didn't come in on Thursday,
which was really unusual, and then he didn't show up
on Friday to pick up his medications. And then I
was down at the Farmer's market downtown on Saturday and

(37:45):
a friend of mine and I were, this sounds so mean, cruel,
but I said, I haven't seen Kenneth lately. I hope
he's not laying up there in his bed and can't
get up. He's frozen to death or something. No way, Monday,
he did not freeze to death. Monday, after I got
home from the cafe, somebody called and said, have you

(38:08):
seen Facebook, WBBJ or something like that, And I said no,
what And they said Kenneth is missing And I said what?
And I said, well, maybe he went on to his
mom's and just didn't get and they said, no, Kenneth
is missing, like his mom has called and said he
was supposed to be at her house Sunday night and

(38:29):
he's missing. So I hung up and or yeah, I
hung up, and I called the police and I said,
my understanding is that Kenneth is missing, and I know
where he usually stayed, and he was dead. He had
either odd or yeah. And you know, he was just
kind of one of those guys in Jackson that you

(38:51):
either loved him or you or you didn't necessarily loved him,
but you liked him yeah, yeah, or you feared him,
and you know, to our family was one of those,
isn't it.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Isn't it inevitable in this work, though, that you're going
to have people, you're going to deal with some of those.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, we've had, We've had We've had a couple,
you know, of our volunteers that have passed away, and
it's always it's it's very sad, but those those two.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
So I think it's hilarious that the homeless are not
referred to as the freebies or whatever they're you're volunteers.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yeah, there are volunteers. Yeah, we don't we don't say, oh, yeah,
he's almost.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
You know, he's a volunteer.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Volunteers.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, and they can come in with dignity and not
say I need a free mill. I'm here to volunteer. Yeah,
and went on through volunteering. You can feedbee amazing.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, and they do. They come in and they say
I'm here to volunteer.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Which implies I need food. I'm here to eat, but
I'm going to do my work for us.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
And by the way, we do also have community service volunteers,
so we have people. Sure, kids from the need community
service hours for school, you know, the whole that's school. Yeah,
the whole community college group now has to volunteer eight
at but but you're an.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Approved place for them to get those hours, which is
also very cool.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
I've also we've also had what are they called the
whole seos or whatever from the schools and now you know,
kids that are in a school or uh you know,
or have been technically suspended from school. Yeah, they'll have
their I'll have their Yeah. And it is so funny

(40:38):
because they come in and they're almost always there for
a week, sometimes longer, and they come in and they
are mad, they did edgy be there. They hate you,
they hate your food. They hate their mama is stupid. Yes,
and I cannot tell you as a matter of fact,

(40:59):
I can't tell you you of one that has left
that place going this is the stupidest place I've ever seen.
They come back and I'll say, now, look, I want
to see you back, but I want to see you
back on different terms, and they'll say, yes, ma'am, miss Amy,
I'm going to behave. I'm going back to school and
I'm going to behave and I'm going to come visit.
And sometimes they do, they come back to visit. I

(41:20):
love those. Yeah, those kind of things.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Yeah, we'll be right back. I mean, this is beautiful.
But there is a you know, profits or necessary measure

(41:45):
of any organization's success. And although you're a nonprofit, right
you still have you have staff. Yeah, there's paid staff
in the kitchen and all. So is there enough money
coming in from revenue from the food to cover staff
or do you also raise money?

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Well, we we do when we need to, really, yeah,
we really do.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
So you run it to just cover the bills, cover staff,
and get out of there. And if you're a little short,
you'll go out to the community and say, hey, we
need help, and how's the community to respond to that incredible.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Two years after we opened, we kind of had a
dry spell and I basically sent just hit it on Facebook.
I could probably pull it up right now. It was
probably two or three years into it, and I said, hey,
I said, community cafe, friends and peeps. I said, you know,
here's what's going on. You know, we need to keep

(42:40):
the lights on, we need to keep buying food. We
haven't seen you in a while, basically is what it said.
I can't even remember.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
We don't get some revenue exactly.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
And I can write if I have some time to
think of it, I must say I can, I can write.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
You get out there.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
So I did, and I just said, we need your help.
This is not about keeping us in a job. This
is not about I'm not.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Making any money doing this.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
It's not about me exactly. It's about I said, this
is your cafe. It's community cafe, the Jackson community. If
you want to see these doors remain open, we need
your help. And they came out and they helped. I
had people that sent checks. I had businesses that sent checks.
I had people that said, hey, I can't give any

(43:29):
extra than more than a dollar or two per meal.
But I'll do that, and I'll bring in friends. I
had people that called and said or emailed and said,
I'm a handyman, you know. So I had this whole
list of people that were willing to say, if you
need this, don't pay for it, let us let me know,

(43:51):
and I can come and help you do this.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
And let's be reminded, as we're listening to you, this
is in Jackson, In Jackson, Tennessee. We're not talking about
a big city with a lot of people that deal
with urban type problems. And I guess my point is,
if you can pull this off in Jackson, oh yeah, anybody,
it can be done anywhere with the right attitude, the

(44:14):
right love, and the right afforc And let.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Me tell you one of the best stories. And I
think you're kind of trying to wrap this up, but
one of the best stories is that twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Actually I was going to ask you tell me one
of your best.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Stories twenty twenty. So interestingly enough, our soup kitchen closed
the doors.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Not your not not to Jackson had a soup kitchen
for the underserved. And they why did they were?

Speaker 2 (44:46):
They were doing box meals, I think, and some you.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Know, privately funded by church or something.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Probably they get federal funding or.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
How does something gets federal funding? Close?

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Maybe maybe they don't get federal funding. I guess I
shouldn't say that, but let's just say the closed.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
They didn't run out of money. What they run out
of they didn't.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
They felt like they needed to be closed to the
public during COVID, like, oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
I'm sorry, I'm missing I'm sorry during COVID. Yes, they
which means there's people in your community. That's probably the meal.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
They get exactly or want to.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
So anyways, and they also said, hey, can we send
them down to you.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
We're closed, we can't stay open, but.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Yeah, go down the street. And they were again they
were doing some boxes, box launch and bags of groceries
and stuff like that. But when you think about it,
that doesn't help the truly homeless because they don't have
anywhere to prepare that food. So anyways, we closed for
about only about three weeks to maybe five weeks at most,

(46:02):
I can't even remember.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Now.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
We closed to dine in, but we set up in
not outside in front, but just in the front of
the cafe. We set up and had box lunches and
anybody could come and get a box lunch. We were
serving probably sixty people a day for free.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
We did the revenue for that.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Well, yep, so we had people still coming in, you know,
that were out and about. You know, it did everything
shut down for a while, but we still had some
that were at the courthouse in downtown and some of
our regular customers that would drive down and go, hey,
I want lunch, you know, and they'd come and they'd
get lunch, and you know, they'd pay more than there's

(46:51):
what their suggested donation was. But I also wrote a
letter to businesses in the community, especially in downtown, and
especially of our customers that I knew owned businesses that
frequented the cafe, and I said, look, we're serving you know,
sixty people a day that aren't paying and cannot pay

(47:13):
a nickel for their lunch, that need to eat. We
need to feed these people. We need some help. And
again the Jackson community rose above and beyond and we
made it through Covet. That is just so yeah, it was,
It was really that was That was probably one of
the highlights of yeah, of my time.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
But if you ever wondered about humanity, it restores your
faith and if you have faith in humanity, it's a
it's a reminder that you know, if you're doing things
the right way and for the right reasons, and you
simply ask help, often will come. Well, it's it's so

(48:00):
called to think about when he opened all your kids,
I guess, washing windows, washing dishes, and doing whatever the
heck it is their mom told him.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
To do exactly. I'm not always liking it either, for sure.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
But sometime during the nine year process of this, you
lost a child.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
We did, we did.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
And it was Cooper.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
It was right, yep, yep, it was Cooper. He was
our second adopted from China, and Cooper was seventeen years old.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
And he'd worked in the restaurant.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, people knew Cooper. Yeah, people knew Cooper. Yeah.
Cooper's teeny tiny, but Cooper had a huge personality. He
used to tell. Some of his funniest lines were he
used to tell my brother, who was single until after

(48:57):
well shortly before Cooper died, he would tell Craig, my brother.
He'd say, Craig, you got ain't girlfriends? And he'd say, no,
he goes, you need to get on match dot com
and get you a wife.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
How was he was Cooper.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Ten probably at the time when he started that, and
then he also loved country music. So you see this
little Chinese fella singing country music at the top of
his lungs. And he used to tell us that he
was going to be the first Chinese country music store.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
You know. Political correctness almost says I'm not supposed to
laugh about that, but yours mom and allowed to laugh
about that is funny.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Because we laughed about it. Oh, I can't even tell
you that. The Cooper stories, I mean, there are so
many Cooper stories. And when we all get together, like
we were all together at Christmas this year, some of
the stories that came out, yeah, just and some I
was kind of like, oh, I really don't want to
hear that.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Want to hear that.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
I want to hear that. One we had a catwalk
at our house and I found out just at our
house in Jackson, and underneath on either side there was
a den and a couch and they used to jump
off the catwalk onto the couch when I was not there, yes,
or when I was. Yeah, it's just crazy.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Our kids did stupid stuff.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Oh yeah, And I was like, so Cooper, you know,
We don't, honestly know. We really did not feel like
Cooper took his own life. We did not know that
Cooper had any inkling that you know, he was. We

(50:41):
had no idea that he was unhappy. Cooper had been.
Cooper was he had some learning difficult disabilities in school.
So I do think that he kind of struggled with
not yeah yeah, and not really feeling like he was
as smart as his other brother that was only, you know,

(51:03):
four months older than he is, Mike. He uh, he
had homeschooled. He really kind of didn't fit in. He's
one of the one of the reasons we moved out
to uh Myland went to Gibson County School District. He

(51:24):
and Leah needed something more than what they were being
served in schools in Jackson, and he had homeschooled a
couple times off and on. He actually did a homeschool
class in the eighth grade that met in the upstairs
of the cafe with three kids, and it was phenomenal.

(51:45):
It was the most fun and it was probably the
best year of Cooper's life. And he so many people
at the cafe got to know Cooper from him being
down there literally every day and got to know the
true his personality and who he was, and just loved him.
And he loved to fish and he would talk to

(52:07):
you for hours on end about fishing. But he and
Mike had been fighting, and I think I think Mike
has moved on beyond, you know, feeling like, you know,
maybe if I didn't fight with them, you know, maybe
if it was a tough thing.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Yeah, that's a tough bear. But there's so many you know,
there's so much more deep seated things than an argument
for somebody to go there, right.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
And I'll also say Cooper was on ADHD medication and
I'm not blaming I'm not at all blaming any of
the meditations or what. But he was on ADHD medication
and he was also on growth hormones, and I kind
of wonder if all of a sudden, all of that
had kind of come together.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
He was seventeen, well combined with yeah, everything clicking. It
a seventeen year old boy's mind and body, which is
exactly utter chaos anybody exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
But Jim and I had unfortunately just left for Italy
for a two week vacation, and Mike and Cooper had
kind of been at each other but it had calmed
down and I thought everything was good. And actually when
we left them, I gave him a big old hug
and I said, hey, I said, you know, if you
have any problems, I said, you can you can always

(53:30):
email me, or you know, I've got service, you can
text me. And I said, Cooper, I said, just be
the bigger man. Just don't you know, just don't let
him get to you, because I think that that was
kind of you know, what happened sometimes was you know,
they'd get arguing and one of them would say something
and Cooper wore his feelings on his sleeve and he

(53:50):
could definitely get injured pretty quick to the heart. So
and he said, I will mind my will and we
I think my understanding is that they went shopping the
next day Sunday, they all went to Old Navy and
had a big time and no tell him what was
on my credit card. But anyways, I think it was

(54:13):
Monday afternoon he got a little bit of trouble at school.
He had was on he was actually emailing me on
his not as iPad, whatever his little thing was. Because
we kind of are those, you know, weird people that
don't give her kids technology. You know, for a while.
But he had some sort of I'm kidding, but he

(54:36):
had some sort of you know, little whatever. Those things
were called tablets, and he was emailing me during his
resource time where he was supposed to be doing some
extra studying and stuff. And he told his teacher, he said, well,
I'm already done, that's why I'm on it. I'm just
going to email my mom. And she said, Cooper, you
know you can't be on that, you know, during class.
Bring it up here. So he took it up there

(54:58):
and he put it on the desk. So she went
into the next room connecting room to help a student
and he got it off her desk. So he got
in trouble for that, and then he got mouthy, which
Cooper could definitely get mouthy, and he got in trouble
and he did not like that. He got in trouble

(55:20):
and they asked him, I can't remember, I think they
told him he was going to be suspended for a day.
And the teacher walked him out to whoever we had
a babysitter or a sitter, you know, for all the kids,
and she walked the teacher walked him out and said,

(55:41):
you know, Cooper, can't come to school tomorrow. You know,
he's been in trouble. He was disrespectful and that just
did it. I mean, he just I guess, we don't
know what happened, but he wandered off on the property,
said he was going for a while. We live on
about eighty acres and they couldn't find him, and they

(56:06):
got started getting a little worried as it started getting
a little drizzly out and it was the end of
October and was getting cool out, and you know, I
got this call that he was missing, and I had
we at the time still owned our house in Jackson,
so we had somebody drive over the house in Jackson.
Our older son had come over and you know, was

(56:26):
helping look for him. The police apartment had been called.
Long story short, they found that my our oldest son
found him the next day and he had taken his
own life. I'm so sorry, and well, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
As it begins to our story. Yeah that we're telling
for you is we all struggle, We all deal with pain.
And you've had this amazing life with these kids and

(57:04):
this husband of yours and the two of you must
be partners in crime to do what you've done creating
the United Nations and Jackson and the amazing work with
Community Cafe. But nobody's life is perfect and peaches and roses,
and we all do with sadness and pain and difficulty,

(57:26):
and that's just what makes us normal people. And this
happened in the middle of you operating the cafe. It
had to have. Did you ever question, do I want
to keep doing this? I mean, was it? I mean,
how do you persevere in the face of that?

Speaker 2 (57:49):
I guess is what I'm asking you.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
No.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
I did take about a month off, and you know,
I'll be very honest and say, there are still days that,
you know, I get up and think I don't want
to do anything. You know, I don't want to do anything,
and and there were a lot of those days. But

(58:16):
I also knew, and I'd always said that the cafe
was my happy place. And even though I knew that
first day back was gonna be really hard, my husband
was absolutely fabulous. He had already said, when you're ready

(58:39):
to go back, I'll go with you. You know, you
don't have to go by yourself. I know that's gonna
be hard, And and that was a really good thing
because I think maybe he had already been down there,
because a lot of times he would go, you know,
he went back to work in the hospital is not
very far from the cafe. May maybe he had been

(59:00):
back for lunch. I'm pretty sure he had, because I
think I remember him saying, so and so asked about
you today. But the two of us went back together,
you know, kind of as a united front, and you know, everybody,
you know, no one. It was amazing because I just thought,

(59:23):
I don't want people to feel like they can't say
I'm so sorry to hear about Cooper, and you know.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
What do you say to a mom? Exactly that's so hard.
Exactly everybody's dying inside for you, but they also don't
want to say anything to hurt you, right, So the
natural incondation is to just not say, not say anything.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Except I think people have I think people in general,
like across the board, have gotten much better at dealing
with death and dying, and probably especially now after COVID,
even though that was fre COVID. But I don't remember
one person just you know, floating over it, not saying

(01:00:08):
anything that that actually.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Knew, and that was probably therapeutic.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
It was very therapeutic and it was again. I mean,
I had for so many years said that the cafe
was my happy place, that I needed to be back there.
I like to tell people that I've.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
That amazing that it's called community cafe and it was
your community too.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Yeah, we'll be right back, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
I love to tell people that I am actually an
extroverted introvert, and I truly am. I've got a daughter
that is an extroverted introvert also meaning that, well you
know what that means. I mean, I love people, and
I love being with people, but I also love my
own time. But I think I had had enough of

(01:01:03):
my own time and it was time to put on
my boots and put on my apron and head back.
And you know, I knew that I eventually had to,
you know, see everybody, And.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
So I mean, the reality is your life has to
go on exactly. It's amazing. It's amazing that in the
middle of all of this you had to endure such
pain and heartache and persevered through it. But it is,
unfortunately just part of a human beings narrative. We have setbacks,

(01:01:38):
and we have painful, horrific, traumatic things, but it doesn't
mean we stopped right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
I was gonna say, but you can't stop living. You
can't just quit. And you know, unfortunately, I've known a
couple of people that have have actually lost sons taking
their own life since Cooper, and you know that that's
my one thing is I never give advice, but if

(01:02:08):
somebody says, how do you do it? You know, you
just you have to keep moving, take that time, take
that time to take care of yourself, you know. And
I think, you know, I just relied on It was
the Holy Spirit for me saying Okay, Amy, you know
you're up, you're up and moving this morning. It's time

(01:02:29):
for you to go back to the cafe. And that's
basically what it was. It was just, you know, I
just felt like, Okay, I can go and I need
to go and and love my people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
It's phenomenal, amazing, And you know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
The best thing is is that people also know now
that everybody knows that that, and everybody will want every
once in a while, somebody will come up and say,
I just thought about something that Cooper told me one time,
and they'll share it with me. Cooper's teacher actually gave
me his homeschool teacher from upstairs at the cafe one

(01:03:05):
day said I have something for you, and she had
found some of his papers, so she gave me his
papers from school, and she also gave me in that
little bag there was a fun sized candy bar, because
he used to say, I'm not I'm not little, I'm
just fun size, and he was. And then also for
her birthday that year, So embarrassed to say this, but

(01:03:29):
I'm gonna say it, he dug through my supply of
candles because he knew I loved candles and he thought
she would love candles. Well, he didn't bother to check
to be sure that the candle was a new candle,
so he gave her candle.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Hey, it's a thought the cats.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
So anyway, well, there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Cooper's legacy clearly lives on in you in the community cafe.
It's an amazing story. So let's say somebody's listened to
us and they think I want to do that in
my neighborhood. How do they reach you and find out

(01:04:13):
how to do it?

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
They are more than welcome to call me at the cafe.
That note it's seven three one, three hundred four six
seventy four, and they are welcome to if they really
want to touch base with me on my cell phone
because I usually only go in on Thursday and Friday.
Now I've got a great staff. They can talk to

(01:04:37):
Tina or Austin and almost always they.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Will about email you if they want to.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
They can email me. And I don't mind giving that out.
That is because they can find it on the website.
It's Community Cafe Jackson at gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
But again, call come by see what we're all about
to eighteen East Main Street in Jackson, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Or if they don't want to open a cafe and
they just feel called to serve about a thousand people,
they can drop you a check in the mail.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
They can drop us a check in the mail, and
we you know what. I never pretend like, oh, we're
making it. It's going to be great, you know, because
the guy that does my finances would be like me
talking about I'm the one paying the bills. But yeah,
so we've got I think on our Facebook page or

(01:05:30):
on our website, Community Cafe Jackson, I think there's a
donate mutton there. There's a donate mutton on our Facebook page.
Our Facebook and our Instagram always has the menu. We
love having out of town company come through and say hey,
I just heard about you and wanted to come have lunch.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
It's an incredible story and you're an incredible person. And
I want everybody to go back to the beginning of
our conversation. If you can start a community cafe or
some other name with a cool l acronym, but something
like this with ten children driving around a twelve passenger
van like a bus driver Walmart. If you can do.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
It, anybody can do it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Anybody really can do this and make a difference in
so many people's lives. And it's just a perfect example
of government proves woefully and inadequate helping the underserved and
the homeless. But just a normal person in the middle
of the community seeing a place of need and saying

(01:06:34):
I can help, can make all the difference in the world, exactly.
And the payoff is how enriched has your life out
from itue?

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
Absolutely and it has I think more than anything it
has probably it has made our children who they are
and who are who they are, becoming just kind, respectful,
always wanting to.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Help, probably really appreciative.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Yeah, as you did. And yeah, it's just you know,
shown them that somebody doesn't have to walk the same
walk or look the same way, or you know, go
to a certain school or certain church or whatever to

(01:07:20):
be a friend. You know, and you can be a
friend to anybody and you know, be there to help
out when you're called to help out.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
So you and your husband Jim, right, Jim, You and
your husband Jim have been the family you've built and
the way you built it, and then for him to
build the furniture and for you to do what you've
done and involve your children and your entire family is
a blessing for Jackson, and your story is a blessing

(01:07:53):
for all of us listening. And maybe, just maybe somebody
has heard this story and they thought, well, I only
have two kids, I can do this, and Topeka absolutely
or something else and will feel called to it, and
they know how to get in touch with you now
and Amy, it has been an absolute pleasure to share

(01:08:14):
your story. And you, my friend, are absolutely a member
of the army of normal folks.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
I'm glad to be a member of the army of
normal folks. You, although I kind of think sometimes I'm
not really very normal. Jim and I actually always talk
about we're not normal.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
Yeah, Well, the two kids and everything else is it.
But you're also not some preordained politician or somebody else
who's quote job it is to do this. You're just
a normal person who saw a place to fill it
and has done so in such a magnificent way, both
in your family and your community. And I just can't

(01:08:53):
thank you enough for joining me.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
It's been a fun ride. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
And thanks to all of you for joining us this week.
If Amy or another guest has inspired you in general,
or better yet, to take action by visiting community cafe
or a similar cafe elsewhere, donating to them, or even
starting one in your community, or something else entirely, please

(01:09:23):
let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You
can write me anytime at Bill atnormalfolks dot us. Guys.
Just two days ago, I got an email from a
guy in Florida who's been helping a guy in Haiti
with an orphanage, and he was inspired by Luke Michelson's

(01:09:45):
story that you might remember sleep in Heavenly Peace building
beds for kids that don't have any, And now this
guy who runs an orphanage in Haiti is now having
the kids in his orphanage. Bill beds for other kids
in Haiti who don't have bets. If that is not

(01:10:05):
an unbelievable example of the power of an army of
normal folks, I don't know what is even better yet.
We're gonna have this gentleman from Haiti come on as
a guest in the future and you're gonna get to
hear about all his story, which started from Luke Michelson's story.
See guys. An Army of normal folks is about building

(01:10:26):
a community of people who build off one another. And
if you hear about it, or you see it, or
you want to be part of it, write me at
Bill Atnormalfolks dot us. I promise you I'll respond, And
if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends that
are on social subscribe to the podcast, rate and review
it all the things that will continue to help us

(01:10:49):
grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll
see you next week.