Starting from scratch

Joyce Fawson still has daily flashbacks of "the incident." Not just because her leg doesn't work so well any more. And not just because she still feels pain.

Every day is a reminder of where she has been and the legacy she inherited on Nov. 25, 2001. It was a Sunday night, and Fawson was at work at Jimbo's Drive Inn in Grantsville, where she'd been just about every Sunday night for 30 years.

On that Sunday, however, Fawson saw a woman running toward the restaurant, chased by her enraged husband. She ran outside to help. The man had a gun.

Thomas Schutz chased his wife, Marilyn, and Fawson into Jimbo's and began shooting. Marilyn Schutz and Jimbo's owner, Jimmie Maddox, were killed. Fawson was shot in the abdomen. The bullet ricocheted through her leg.

Minutes later, Thomas Schutz committed suicide.

Jimbo's Drive Inn closed. Fawson spent the next three months recovering from her injuries and contemplating her future. She knew a few things: She loved the people she served for more than three decades at Jimbo's, and she wasn't going to let the incident defeat her.

In February 2002, Fawson got together with her husband, Blaine, and her kids, to decide what she should do.

"It occurred to me that I couldn't just sit around," Fawson said. "That's just not who I am. So I sat down with my family and said, 'We should think about building or buying another restaurant in Grantsville.' Because there was a definite need."

Fawson laughs when she recalls the discussions. They talked about good food, the good people of Grantsville and possible names for the restaurant.

"We kicked around a lot of names, some as morbidly funny as 'The Ricochet Cafe,' " she said. "We decided against that one."

Whatever the name, Fawson couldn't walk away.

"The customers, they were as much my family as my family," she said. "I worked there from the time I was 16. It was a nice, comfortable job, close to home. I loved the work."

So Fawson met with representatives of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Business Information Center and the Service Corps of Retired Executives, who provided her with advice and information about running a business. The SBA provided a small-business loan, and she was on her way.