Thirty teenagers kept a Wisconsin restaurant running for eight months while the owner stayed by his wife’s hospital bedside.
God places people in our lives for a reason. We might not understand His plan at first, but when things unfold we see how much He cares about us.
In this story, we see a group of teenagers who became the hands and feet of Jesus when their boss needed them most.
Chad and Carol Trainor owned Urban Olive & Vine in Hudson, Wisconsin. They hired teenagers between ages fourteen and eighteen to work at their restaurant.
“They soak up information, they want to learn, they want to do well,” Chad says about his young workers.
The couple treated these kids like family. They helped with homework and attended school sports games and performances.
On September 28, Carol collapsed on the restaurant floor. She had a grand mal seizure right there in the dining room.
Carol spent the next eight months in the hospital in Minneapolis. She was in a coma most of that time.
Chad stayed by her side every day. He thought about closing the restaurant.
The teenagers had other plans.
“I didn’t ask one teenager to do anything extra,” Chad remembers. “They just did it.”
Seventeen-year-old Acacia Kunkle started showing up at 5:30 in the morning to prep food. The homeschooled kids like fifteen-year-old Joe Stephenson worked during the day.
The public school students covered evenings and weekends. Sixteen-year-old Lainey Dombrovski and another teen named Tori went grocery shopping for Chad.
Seventeen-year-old Tori Manikowski took over the bookkeeping.
Chad would stop by at 4 a.m. each morning to make schedules. Then he would drive back to the hospital to sit with Carol.
The teenagers ran everything else. They trained each other. They came up with daily specials. They even watered Carol’s plants.
“It’s a family here,” eighteen-year-old Lilly Benzer says with tears in her eyes.
The teenagers felt they owed it to Chad and Carol. The couple had sponsored their pageants and rarely missed their school events.
“It’s almost unfair for it not to be reciprocated back to them,” Lilly explains.
Chad’s voice breaks when he talks about those months. “We didn’t know it at the time; my wife was dying, and they just thought they were helping out because she needed help, they needed things covered until she came back.”
Carol never came back. She died on May 5 at age 58.
Chad closed the restaurant so everyone could attend Carol’s funeral. The next day, the teenagers came back to work.
“She was just a really amazing person,” Lilly says, wiping away tears.
“Without them, the restaurant would not exist,” Chad says. “These kids became adults and ran our business and took care of me. I love them like they’re my own kids.”
These teenagers could have walked away and focused on their own lives. Instead, they saw this crisis as a chance to show love and gratitude to people who had cared for them.
Like these teens, may we all have loving hearts that stay with others even in their darkest moments.
WATCH: Teens Step In to Save Restaurant While Owner Cares for Wife in Hospital
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
Video not working?
