Susan Odom didn’t even think she would get to open her restaurant, Maw Maw’s Cornbread Kitchen, on the morning of Sunday, March 16.
As day broke after tornadoes left paths of destruction throughout Alabama, including Daviston in Tallapoosa County, Odom kept logging into her security system at Maw Maw’s to see if the power was on.
She even posted a message on the restaurant’s Facebook page letting the community know she didn’t have power and couldn’t open.
That message was at 7:36 a.m. Odom logged back into the security system, and power was back on. She posted again at 7:50 a.m. that she would indeed open.
“It had to be God’s blessing because each of the two houses on each side of my restaurant were still out,” Odom said.
Sundays are usually a busy day for Maw Maw’s Cornbread Kitchen. But Odom really wanted to open this particular Sunday to help feed those neighbors she knew had lost power and suffered damage from the storms.
Maw Maw’s fed many that day, and at 1:48 p.m., Odom got a call from Alabama Power.
The lineworkers who had been busily restoring power in the Horseshoe Bend area wanted to keep working to replace the eight broken poles. Could Odom provide 100 meals to feed them and allow them to keep working?
It was 12 minutes before Maw Maw’s was supposed to close. Odom checked with her staff members to see if they were willing to stay and help feed the line crews. They were.
The next challenge was seeing if they had enough food. She said she could probably provide one piece of catfish and some French fries on each plate. Alabama Power agreed that would be fine.
But by the time the dishes were prepared, there ended up being two pieces of fish per plate, like some sort of New Testament multiplication miracle. In addition to the French fries, Maw Maw’s included hush puppies, fried okra, and an assortment of desserts such as lemon meringue pie, chocolate meringue pie, and caramel cake. She also included tea and ice as well as cups.
That Odom and the Maw Maw’s staff stepped up doesn’t surprise Matt Cotney, a distribution support manager for Alabama Power. Cotney frequents the restaurant and grew up in the area. His family’s property was among those damaged in the storm.
“This small community comes together after events like this to help each other,” Cotney said. “My family has lived here since the late 1800s, so it’s a special place to me. I’ve always told people there are more cows than people in this community, but our relationships and support are larger than most big cities.”
Courtesy of Alabama News Center
