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May 16, 2005

An Inspiring Story

I love what I do because I get to tell stories like the one below. Christine Ryals, owner of north High Point's Souper Crisp, had a run of bad luck that evokes the biblical Job. But she rose above those difficulties by making a lifelong dream come true.

If you're down on your luck, feel beaten up by life and just want to crawl into a dark room and hunker down, read Ryals' story. And if all is well in your world, great! You can still find inspiration in her story.

HIGH POINT -- Christine Ryals' story begins with what should have been a happy ending.

Not long after moving into her dream home on Belews Lake, the 48-year-old endured two years of personal and professional misfortune that left her feeling alone and suicidal.

She conquered depression by achieving a lifelong goal: Ryals became a restaurateur, gaining ownership of north High Point's Souper Crisp last summer.

"I always wanted to try to do something on my own," Ryals said. "And that became extremely important after everything happened."

For a dozen years before a contractor gave it form, Ryals and her husband kept a scrapbook of their future dream home: what the landscaping would look like, what furniture would go in that nook, what appliances would go in that cranny.

Not long after the couple moved into the home in 2000, lung cancer was diagnosed in Ryals' mother. By 2002, Ryals' life was divided between her full-time job at Greensboro's International Paper and her mother's home nearby.

She rarely made it to Belews Lake and her husband.

"I guess I left him unattended," she said. "So I can't totally blame him."

Ryals said her husband left her after 20 years of marriage and one child. The couple since has divorced.

Soon after her husband moved away, Ryals' grandmother died in New York. Six months after that, Ryals' mother died.

Then Ryals was "downsized" from International Paper after 23 years, many spent in upper management. She sensed the blow coming, but it was still a shock.

"I had a job, and now I don't have it," Ryals said. "I don't have my mother, my grandmother or my husband. I cannot tell you the depths of depression that I had."

Small tasks, such as mowing her hilly lawn with a riding mower, overwhelmed Ryals and left her sobbing on the kitchen floor. She lost 40 pounds in three months. She stayed in bed for days. She went to therapists, who prescribed antidepressants.

What would happen, Ryals wondered, if I drove my car off the road? Or if I took handfuls of those pills I'm being prescribed?

Ryals had built so many dreams during 20 years of marriage: She and her husband would retire at the beach. They'd grow old together. They would be buried together; the adjacent plots purchased when the marriage was strong.

When those dreams ended, Ryals needed new ones. Or, she decided, life wouldn't be worth living.

She forced herself to get out of bed and take business classes at GTCC. Cooking was Ryals' passion, and for years she had dreamed of opening her own restaurant.

Then she saw a classified advertisement offering a restaurant for sale off N.C. 68.

Ryals visited Souper Crisp. With her mother's inheritance and what was left of her severance package from International Paper, Ryals bought the restaurant.

She has expanded it from a lunch-only enterprise to one that offers breakfast and dinner. She knows many of her customers on a first-name basis. She aspires to create a nationwide franchise.

"I'm trying to show that I'm not a quitter, that I'm not letting things die. This is not who I am," Ryals said. "What you do is you make a choice each day. And the choice is to come to work, put on a smile, and if you're not happy inside, maybe you can make other people happy instead.

"And it's working."

Posted by at May 16, 2005 8:57 AM