Friends and Neighbors,
Last March we were living our lives, working and playing, traveling, building our beautiful Chill Restaurant. We were so much in love and feeling like we had finally “arrived” at I don’t know… somewhere I guess. And then, all of a sudden, everything changed with one single blood test. As so many of you know, Steve was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia.
We found ourselves immediately yanked out of our fairy tale love world into cancer world, with a very poor prognosis. After multiple rounds of chemo his life expectancy was measured in months. We left for MD Anderson in Houston chasing hope at the only cancer center where the future of leukemia treatment is a reality today. We left our home, Chill, our family, our whole life behind, not knowing whether we would ever come back together, whether we would have our beautiful home again, whether Chill would be standing.
At the same time, the City announced the Corey Avenue road closure. With about 2 month’s notice, Corey Avenue closed and the nightmare of road construction began. To say that had a detrimental impact on Chill is a gross understatement.
Somehow, and I still don’t know how, we stayed in business. Somehow, Steve survived. Somehow, we came home together. Somehow, his bone marrow transplant was dramatically successful with a perfectly matched donor. Somehow, we came home six weeks early. Somehow, we went back to work and began the long and painful process of rebuilding our beloved Chill.
And, to be honest, I DO know how all that happened. YOU showed up. You prayed for us. You donated money.
You gave us courage and encouragement. You kept in touch with us. You wandered through dust and road construction to support Chill. There were many days when we literally felt like our whole community was truly holding us close in thought, prayer and intention.
So, I wanted to say, with my whole heart, THANK YOU. Thank you for believing in Grace. Thank you for sharing our pain, lessening ours. Thank you for the tears you shed. Thank you for your commitment to our sweet restaurant. Thank you for investing in us.
Little by little, all is getting better one day at a time. Steve is getting much better. Chill is thriving again. We were super lucky to have Chef Joe Luisi rejoin us. He was at Chill until he took the Chef position at The Club on Treasure Island. And, he just came back about a month ago. Our staff struggled tremendously during the road closure and they are mostly all still there. We brought back some old school Chill recipes. I am truly believing we are going to make it.
Steve is going to make it. Chill is going to make it.
Love & Gratitude, Ruthie and Steve