Courage is Fear that has Said Its Prayers

Happy New Year everyone! Here at Her Story, we are so excited to be starting another year and can’t wait to share what all we have in store with you. Finally, we are back with our first story of the year. This is one of Emily’s picks and it is such a treat for me to meet new ladies and really have no idea where the conversation might lead. But with this lady, I had met her briefly before, when Emily and I first met at Panera to discuss Her Story a year ago. So the irony to see her again around the same time that she met us and first heard about Her Story. We were so excited to see her again and you will learn so much about how genuinely kind she is, and we all want to be her when we grow up. So here we go, round one of year two.

Her name is Annie McDaniel or “Miss Annie”

We met Annie at a little pizza place in Chelsea, and it was fitting as Annie and her husband own a pizza place in Trussville. It was fun to see Annie in her element even at someone else’s pizza place. As food lovers, we had to eat pizza first before we dived deeper into conversation. I mean who doesn’t love to get to know someone and eat pizza! That’s my heaven. As we usually do, we started our conversation off with asking her to tell us a little bit about herself and this is what she had to say, “I have been married for 33 years. I got married when I was 17 and had my first daughter when I was 19. I have three wonderful girls. I loved being a mom, and I really loved raising my girls. I am the third of seven children. I have really wonderful parents, but my parents married and divorced each other three times, so it made some interesting family dynamics. I have always been the peacemaker and I had lot of responsibility growing up. I didn’t go to college, and it was because I didn’t know that was what you were supposed to do. But my husband and I really worked hard together. He ended up going to college while we were raising our family together. He worked in I.T. for a long time but his dream was always to own a franchise. So we started looking in that direction. We sold our historic home on Main Street in Columbiana so we could afford the Marco’s Pizza and moved into an apartment while our smaller home was being built. We signed the papers to own a Marco’s Pizza the first week of April, moved into our new home two weeks later and two weeks after that Darryl had a massive stroke and almost died. We have been learning a lot of things in the last three and a half years during that process. We have grown a lot, and we have some sayings that we really hang onto ‘Stronger Every Day’ and ‘We Can Do Hard Things.’” This experience really gave her insight on life and she made the decision that her husband had worked so hard his entire life that she was now going to make sure that he did things that he always wanted to do, like go fishing and get a truck. They didn’t know if Marco’s Pizza was going to be a part of those achievable dreams, but things ended up working out and they were able to make it work. Annie really emphasized how they have had a lot of hard stuff happen in life, but that she always tries to maintain a positive attitude. And y’all, just talking to her you can sense that. Despite what life has thrown at her or her family, she really is just such a shining light in a sometimes dark world.

Since we were discussing the struggles of her life, I asked Annie to tell us about one of the most challenging experiences for her. This is what she had to share, “One of the most difficult things in my life happened right before I turned 30. We lived in a small house on Main Street and I was taking care of a 5 year old little boy at the time. He was run over by a fire truck and was killed. I watched it happen. My daughters watched it happen. He had come up to me and asked if he could get a popsicle and I was busy and I told him to give me a minute. A voice said to me to get that little boy a popsicle but I ignored it. And a few minutes later he asked if he could go get his bike. I told him he could go get it with my daughter. Through just a series of events, the person who was driving the fire truck thought he was stopping and he ended up getting run over. It was horrible because I had a dear friend who had lost her son, and my children were part of a traumatic, tragic accident. But at this time it was important to me for my children not to see a sad mother. I would take my children to school every day, but then I would come home and stay on the couch or in bed all day. I would get up about an hour before the kids would get home and clean up the house and make them cookies. I pretended a lot, and I’m glad that I did. Sometimes I think it’s okay to fake it until you make it because you honestly don’t know if you can make it. In the process of that, I got into running because one of my sweet neighbors called me and told me to put my shoes on and go with her. I was not a runner but she was very patient with me as we would run through Columbiana. This happened 20 years ago but it still feels like it just happened. And amazingly, my friend, the boy’s mother, she really remained my friend. The older I get the more I appreciate that.” She explains that she eventually got passed it but she had amazing support from her husband and her friends. She was also able to get into running that has also become an important part of her life.

We ended up swinging to a more positive side and asking her to tell us about one the best things that she has had to go through in life. She answered, “Really my husband’s stroke. As hard as it was, there were many experiences where I had to turn to God and let him hold me. Through that experience, I got to truly realize the amazing people that were in our lives. It really gave me perspective and gratitude in life. It’s not things that you are grateful for, it’s the people in your life and the love that we share. As crazy as that sounds to be grateful for that very difficult thing, it really changed my life. We have a saying in our bathroom that says, ‘Courage is fear that has said its prayers.’ I used to think that people were naturally courageous. Then I realized having gone through that experience, that I wasn’t really brave, I was really scared. But I conquered that by praying on my knees.” Through talking with her, you can hear the love she has for her family. She loves her husband dearly as well as her three daughters, sons in laws, and grandchildren. They truly are some of the most important things to her, and you can hear that in how she speaks of them. We asked her to give some thoughts on marriage since she and her husband have been through a lot and she really encourages all you married people out there or people about to get married to be kind and patient with one another. Also to not bail. She explained that even when things get hard, it doesn’t mean that it’s not right. So she encourages you to stick it out. Also, she hopes that you value dating each other, no matter what that looks like: trips to the grocery store together or just a movie night at home, she explains that it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I personally agree with her so much. Try to enjoy the time that you have with each other, and continue to work through things despite how hard things can get. Just enjoy where you are as a married couple. I honestly wish you could listen to all her advice, she really has so much wisdom to give especially since she is someone who got married young and is beating the odds of how the world says that they should end up.

As we always do, we ended by asking her how she would define beauty and if she found herself beautiful. She stated, “I am surrounded by a lot of beautiful people through my work as Miss Annie, our Marco’s Pizza store and in my life in general. I think people who are kind, compassionate, loving and who serve are all beautiful. And I do think I’m beautiful. It’s been a process to be able to say that. I used to feel like I shouldn’t say the things I’m gifted at, like what I do as Miss Annie, and teaching. I thought it was boastful to say things like that but then I realized that God has give me particular gifts and it’s okay to recognize those gifts. When I decided to recognize that, it gave me confidence, and not in a boastful way. I always try to do simple acts of service every day, and it just makes you feel so much better. It has created a feeling of being able to look at myself in the mirror and see God’s image in my countenance.”

Miss Annie is truly amazing in all aspects, from her job as Miss Annie in the classroom to just being such a sweet encouragement to her friends and family. It was such an honor to sit with her and I hope you all got something sweet out of her story.

Thank you Annie for your willingness to share your story with us and we will eat pizza with you anytime. :)

As always, thanks to my amazing pal, Emily, for always doing such a great job capturing the moments as well as just being an awesome person on this journey alongside me. If you don't follow us on social media please do, whatever one you prefer. We have a new Facebook page, just search Her Story and you should be able to find us. As well as we are on instagram at herstorybham. Which you will really want to follow us on social media, as that is where we will be posting about the new thing we are starting in 2018. It's going to be a fun year!