2020-05-09

Three of the people Kurt and I photographed this week were Lester Miller, Aumaine Mott, and Wendy Leigh Meadors of Stella’s Kentucky Deli. Today we picked up two Kentucky pies from Stella’s: one as a Mothers’ Day offering, another as a gift to a college graduate whose big university celebration would have been today. Tonight we share Aumaine’s reflection about the lightness and dark that are now (and, perhaps, always) part of our daily lives: “This is a hard time for everyone. I struggle with depression and for the first month of quarantine all I could do was survive. We have three children, K-4th grade, and I have been overwhelmed by the rigors of facilitating their education and managing the expectations of their three different schools. We had to close our restaurant of 14 years, Stella’s Kentucky Deli, for three weeks and although we have reopened with the help of a government loan, the financial hit we have already taken will make it nearly impossible to survive the next winter. The uncertainty that this experience has introduced into our lives is excruciating. Despite this, we know that we are fortunate. We are healthy. Our children are healthy. We have a yard. We live in Kentucky and are governed by the calm common sense and gentle kindness of Andy Beshear, to whom we listen every night. So we move forward together through the darkness, holding both the pain and the light in our hearts.” #TogetherKY #TeamKentucky #HealthyatHome