Here’s a holiday story about counting one’s blessings, even as nagging, and potentially life-threatening, circumstances keep stacking up — like the dishes after your Thanksgiving dinner today.
In the annals of irony, Nora Hewitt said, this one takes it.
With her husband laid up in cardiac intensive care for Thanksgiving, she means.
With her husband recovering from a heart infection that could have killed him, she means.
The irony? Well, Chris Hewitt, Nora Hewitt said, doesn’t need today as a reminder to count his blessings, because he does that all the time.
And the other thing?
“Well, he has the biggest heart in the world,” she said.
“He helps everybody. Everybody loves him.”
Chris, who is the owner of Big Red’s Shanty, a popular hamburger joint on Fort Pierpont Road, wasn’t feeling all that well three weeks ago.
So, the guy most people know as “Big Red” went to the emergency room.
He got checked out for the flu, COVID and RSV, the suddenly on-the-rise respiratory syncytial virus better known by its three-letter abbreviation.
Everything came back negative.
Still, he was woozy on his feet.
Two weeks ago, he passed out at work. His blood sugar had spiked — and he isn’t diabetic.
It was a reaction to medicine prescribed by an ER doc, his wife said.
Tests showed damage to his mitral valve, which literally keeps his heart, and everyone’s heart, going.
Not the flu
It wasn’t COVID or the flu or RSV that was making him feel ill. The infection to the valve was already there, and missed, the first time around.
The valve sits between the upper and lower left heart chambers, and if it is infected, diseased or deformed, the blood can’t flow properly.
The heart can become enlarged as a result, meaning any number of medical calamities can occur.
It’s both debilitating and deadly for the patient. Chris went into sepsis, which is an infection of the bloodstream.
Doctors at J.W. Ruby Memorial first thought a valve transplant was in order.
Later, though, they determined the damage could be repaired by robotic surgery, which was successfully done Monday.
Not that it looked successful, Nora said.
Her husband is known as “Big Red” for a reason: His large stature, ginger-tinged hair and ruddy complexion.
The nickname goes back to the old St. Francis High School, where he graduated in 1985.
He kicked and carried the football for the Trojans team and every chance he got, pranked Tony Fragale — the legendary coach who got over being mad just as quickly as he got mad.
As he was wheeled into recovery, Big Red, Nora said, was shrunken and gray.
“They said that was normal,” Nora said, “but he looked like he was dead. Everything was white. Even his hands.”
A fun menu — with a side order of personality
“I can tell you, Chris is such a good guy,” said Todd Gregg, the Star City councilman who is his lifelong friend and St. Francis classmate.
“He does nice things for people without making a big deal about it. That’s just him.”
Chris and Nora, meanwhile, met 15 years ago due to external circumstances that weren’t any fun, either.
She was divorced and he was a widower.
They met, dated, fell in love and got married. Between them, their blended family numbered eight kids — all at once.
“He never went with that ‘stepdad’ stuff,” Nora said. “With my kids, he was their dad.”
He always took the time to be there, his wife said, even while working long hours. He sold cars while never steering away from his dream of owning a restaurant.
A few years back, he opened Big Red’s Shanty, which is now located on Fort Pierpont Road. It’s known for its fun atmosphere, giant portions and the equally outsized proprietor who can converse with his customers about, well, everything.
There’s that, plus his Sasquatch-loving, quirky Appalachian sense of humor shining in the menu.
Names of the fare also reflect his affinity for scary movies and West Virginia tales and sightings of things in the neighborhood of the paranormal.
There’s the “Mothman Meatball Hoagie.”
And “Big Foot BLT.”
Be sure and save room for the “1-pound Yeti Burger,” because you’ll need it.
During the pandemic, the Shanty served up kid’s meal boxes free to students on remote learning, Nora said.
“He was thinking about the kids who only got fed at school,” she said.
Heartbeats of persistence and appreciation
Today, she said, the steady blipping of her husband’s heart monitor will be a Thanksgiving symphony for her ears.
In the short-term, she said, the goal is to get Chris back behind the grill.
The rent’s coming due on the Shanty’s space, but Nora just got a new job, working with the little ones at Tender Care Child Development Center.
She’s grateful to her new employer, she said, for allowing time off to be with her husband during his medical emergency.
The butcher shop that supplied the meat to the Shanty just went out of business, so finding a new vendor tops the day planner.
But that’s just life, she said.
Heck, she said, one time a drunk driver crashed into their house, but they got past that, too.
The important thing today, she said, is that Big Red is still around — which she attributes to all the prayers tossed up by his friends and customers over these past fearful, fretful days.
Blessings, she said.
All the way around.
“My heart is thankful today. So thankful.”
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