Chef Donell Stallworth remembers when he first noticed Charlie Hicks almost a decade ago.
The air force veteran would come every day to the Shrimp Basket in Pensacola, Florida, where Stallworth runs the kitchen. Hicks, who had just retired from a second career as an accountant, would always order a cup of gumbo for lunch and sit and watch baseball on the restaurant’s TV.
Stallworth started sitting with Hicks when the kitchen wasn’t too busy. The two men would talk about baseball — Hicks loves the Yankees, Stallworth is a Dodgers fan.
“When baseball was over we had no more sports he liked so we just started talking about everything else,” Stallworth said. “He grew on me and I grew on him.”
One day in early September, Hicks, 78, didn’t show up for lunch as usual. One of the managers, Denise Galloway, had Hicks’s number in case of an emergency. She called Hicks and learned that he was sick, so she asked him where he lived and offered to bring him gumbo. Hicks asked her to leave it outside his door because he didn’t want to get her sick.
A couple of days went by and Hicks still wasn’t coming in, and Galloway called Hicks again. It went straight to voicemail. She went back to the kitchen and told Stallworth what was going on.
“I just grabbed my keys and walked out,” Stallworth said of that day, Sept. 11.
Stallworth went to Hicks’s apartment and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again, and still no answer. Stallworth was about to turn and leave when he heard a faint cry for help. He opened the door, which was unlocked, and found Hicks on the floor. He had fallen, and was severely dehydrated with two broken ribs. Stallworth was on the phone with Galloway back at the restaurant and asked her to call 911.
“When I got there, he didn’t even know what day it was or what time it was,” Stallworth said. “He really couldn’t talk, because he was so dehydrated.”
Stallworth stayed with him and tried to give him some water while they waited for the ambulance.
“I don’t know what would have happened if Donell hadn’t showed up,” Hicks said. The story was first reported by local station WEAR-TV.
Hicks spent the following two months in the hospital and then in rehab recovering — with his friends from Shrimp Basket visiting him regularly and delivering gumbo. When he fell, his apartment lease was almost up, and his rent was about to increase.
Shrimp Basket general manager Casey Corbin — who said Hicks is like the restaurant’s “adopted grandpa” — noticed there was an empty apartment next door to the restaurant, so she inquired about the rent. She was able to secure it for Hicks, and the landlord brought the lease to him in rehab so Hicks could sign it and make a payment.
“There were a few things that needed to be done before he moved in,” Corbin said. “It was taking a little bit longer than I liked, so I was like, what can we do to make this process happen faster?”
Corbin and her staff ended up helping out with the renovations, cleaning and setting the apartment up for when Hicks got out of rehab. A niece helped pack up his old apartment.
“I helped unpack his house, which was so cool,” Corbin said. “I felt a little weird about it at first. I’m like, going through all this guy’s stuff. And then I was like, this is my grandpa.”
Hicks never married and doesn’t have children. He said he’s been a “loner” all his life. But the staff at Shrimp Basket said he’s part of their family now.
Corbin knew Hicks would need a walker when he got out, so she went to a thrift store and found one for him and had everyone sign it.
When Thanksgiving rolled around, Corbin organized a feast at Shrimp Basket for the staff and their families — and of course, Hicks.
“It was so awesome,” Corbin said. “We’re gonna start doing this every year.”
Hicks loves that he can walk to his favorite restaurant now. But his friends often bring his gumbo to his new apartment because he’s still recovering.
“They’re supposedly running a tab, but I haven’t seen the tab yet,” Hicks said.
On Monday afternoon, Shrimp Basket President Jeff Brooks announced that Hicks would receive free gumbo for life. The restaurant chain also offered free gumbo with any purchase on Monday in Hicks’s honor.
Hicks is still a bit bewildered by all the attention.
“It’s not like I found the cure for cancer or something,” he said. “I just fell in my apartment.”
He added that he has been touched by the number of people who have inquired about his health since the story went viral.
Corbin said she hopes this story will help people remember to look out for one another.
“People matter,” she said. “Every person that walks through that door I treat like a Mr. Hicks.”
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