Her sanctuary, Metro Cafe, is broken into and vandalized but Carmen still smiles, keeps the shop open and warm
When Carmen arrived at Metro Cafe at 5:00 AM Monday morning to open shop, she was shocked to see the drive-through window had been shattered. At first, she thought the wind must have done it, but when she went inside, she saw the rock that had smashed through the window. The glass had also been broken out of the pastry stand and someone had punched a hole in the wall. Her store - her sanctuary - had been vandalized.
She went right to work, cleaned up the mess, replaced the shattered drive-through window and opened for business at 7:00 AM.
From what she told me following her discussions with the police, Metro was but one link in chain of vandalism that struck valley businesses from Houston to Palmer - ten total. KTVA Channel 11 did a little interview with Carmen and ran security footage showing a vandal in action in her shop. KTVA put the number of vandalized businesses at five, but the information Carmen says she received from the police put the number at 10.
One of those was a brand new drive-up coffee kiosk that opened just a couple of weeks ago about three blocks from here. When I drove by this morning, it had not yet reopened and was still boarded up.
Carmen reaches through the window of the pastry stand, which still has no glass. Three-and-a-half years ago, she spent a lot of time with husband Scot discussing just how she wanted the coffee shop to be. They designed it together and then he built it himself.
Scot once described Metro Cafe to me as a stage he had built, and now it was Carmen who is the playwright, the choreographer, the director and lead actor running the show.
She has created something unique and warm here, the likes of which Wasilla has never seen before.
As for the vandal(s) who broke, entered, destroyed, found no money stored on premise to take and left having needlessly and senselessly hurt people, I must conclude there is a big hole in this person's heart - something is missing from his soul. He has hurt himself much worse than he has hurt Carmen.
And he doesn't even know it.
Perhaps one day he will learn.
"This is my little world," Carmen told me. "This is the place I feel safe. Even now. I feel safe here."
It's Jacob's birthday, by the way - 38. We will celebrate tomorrow night when I go into Anchorage to pick Margie up from her babysitting pleasures.
Reader Comments (4)
Awww this is tough!!!! Her positive outlook is admirable ;)
Poor Carmen.. I don't really understand why people do the things that they do. It's a great little spot. It's sad the people ruin some of the best parts of life.
Oh, I am so sorry. I hope they find the person who did this!
GRRR. Give Carmen a hug from me (mocha and biscotti in the morning with the big dog, gone over a year now...). That just sucks dead toads. I hope they get the vandal.