“I met with the staff that Sunday in June to tell them Heavenly Pies was closing. I had a storage space and was ready to pack everything up. I did a reel on June 15 thanking our customers, and saying this was the end because we couldn’t financially make it. I had to strip off my pride to make that reel. I owed that to our customers.

The next day, people were waiting outside. Some waited two hours—in the heat. One Saturday, we sold out, and the parking lot was full of people giving me their orders for Monday. I didn’t expect so much support from Mobile, and it gave me hope. It helped me see that this community has always been here.

I was born in the Campground and grew up in Toulminville. I watched my grandparents-community and building others up were important to them. Everyone was drawn to my grandmother and how she would help people.

My grandfather worked two labor jobs. He unloaded bags of cement by hand during the day. Then he went to the State Docks to unload banana and chicken boats by hand, too. He sent all five of their kids to private school at Heart of Mary by working two jobs in the ’50s and ’60s.

I applaud my grandfather, but once he retired, he didn’t have a chance to enjoy life because his body was run down. That pushes me now.

My grandfather’s younger brother was the entrepreneur of our family. He went to New York and owned a dry cleaner and the six apartments above it. I spent summers there working in the cleaners. Going between Mobile, Brooklyn and the Bronx during the ’70s were very different worlds.

Their sister was a maid in Mobile for years, and my grandmother was head of sterilization at USA Hospital. These are the people I was learning from.

I left Mobile in ’85, entered the military as a reservist, then attended DeVry University in Atlanta. My first love was law. I had a work-study at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and became friends with one of the attorneys. He set me up to attend American University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated. I didn’t go. I didn’t know how prestigious it was or what he had done for me.

I was a young kid from Mobile, eager to get a job. I didn’t know anything about purpose or passion.

My first business was a cleaning company in Atlanta, and my first contract was to clean pizza restaurants. I also have a biomedical business. I’ve been investing in Mobile since 2001, buying real estate and looking for income streams. This restaurant came along, and me and my partners said, ‘Let’s do it.’

I’ve been in Atlanta for 40 years, and that’s home. But pizza brought me back to Mobile. This was originally going to be part of a franchise. That didn’t work out, making our road with Heavenly Pies a lot harder and more expensive.

I returned to run a business but also to give back. The Boys & Girls Club brings kids on Fridays to make their own pizzas. We just participated in a book bag giveaway.

We’re sowing something good for this community, and I want people to feel safe and on good soil here. People come in with issues, wanting to talk. There’s a lot of opportunity but also a lot of hurt in Mobile.

I’m an only child. My mom passed in ’92. I never met my dad. My grandfather raised me. I lacked some things when I left Mobile, so I can relate to these kids. The military changed my mind on some things and helped me realize what I didn’t know. It’s not about what we say. It’s what we show. We have to show our kids something different. Me being in business gives an example to someone else.

I’m looking toward retirement and starting an all-boys school. I want the kids everybody has thrown away. How do we engage kids in trades that are meaningful to them?

I was talking to some young kids in our parking lot and told them, ‘I don’t know if you know God. But what you see right now is a move of God.’ He sees us and hears our cry. You know He’s going to do it. You just don’t know when, where, or how.

Mobile has always had something special that waits for reasons to come out. We can do this community on the regular and grow as a people.

I’m no perfect person. I’m just somebody who cried out. God continues to hear my cry.”

Darryl

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