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DawsonOpinion
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2022
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
An exception for
an exceptional
author and story
As a matter of
policy, I don’t do
book reviews in
this space. If you
do one, you are
pretty much com
mitted to do them
all. If fairness,
where do you draw
the line?
However, today I am going to make an
exception because the author is exceptional
as is the story she tells. Her name is
Samantha Perez but her friends call her Sam.
So do I.
A native of Lexington, Ky, she is currently
a news reporter at WLTX-TV in Columbia,
SC. She is also a graduate of my beloved
Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and
Mass Communications at the University of
Georgia and, of particular importance to me,
a Yarbrough Fellow.
Anyone who has given this space even a
casual read knows of my great love for my
alma mater and for the Grady College and all
within it. I have tried to express that love
through my time and tithes.
One of the ways is with the establishment
of the Yarbrough Fellowships. They are
awarded to some of the best and brightest in
the college. I don’t make the selections. I just
marvel at the quality of the recipients and
readily admit that I would never have come
close to qualifying for one.
The endowment is now close to 20 years
old and some of the earlier recipients are now
in positions of leadership in organizations
across the country. I hear from a number of
them on occasion, updating me on their
career status and making me feel like a proud
papa. Samantha Perez is one of those.
And that brings me to her book, Deviate
From Denial: Erasing the Stigma of
Addiction and Recovery Through
Inspirational Stories. And what an inspira
tional story it is. Even more inspiring, she
wrote the book while still in school and prior
to graduating magna cum laude. (Did I men
tion that Yarbrough Fellows are high achiev
ers and smarter than a whip?)
The book is about the opioid epidemic that
is currently gripping our nation.. According
to the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, last year over 100,000 people
died from opioid overdose . That is more
than died from car wrecks, gun violence and
influenza. It is a subject about which Sam is
well-versed. Not from personal use but from
personal observation.
Her parents, Diane and Rob Perez, operate
DV8 Kitchen in Lexington, a bakery that
serves breakfast and branch. But this is not
your ordinary eatery. The establishment
seeks out and hires people in recovery from
substance use. Currently employed are 23
individuals working hard every day to stay
clean, including a healthcare professional, an
engineer, former college students and a col
lege professor.
But this is not a charity operation, DV8 is a
popular and profitable restaurant in town that
gets high ratings from its customers and from
crowd-sourced reviewers like Yelp. Most
reviews mention the good food as well as the
excellent service.
Because those in recovery have a sense of
shame at where their life and circumstances
have led them, it is her parent’s philosophy
that having a job is an ideal way to build
back self-respect. In fact, DV8’s employees
are paid better than their competitors if they
are performing 20 percent better. Excellence
is the standard, not pity.
Sam Perez recounts the stories of those
recovering or attempting to recover from sub
stance abuse who have worked at her parent’s
restaurant. She notes that the stories are “full
of pain but they are also full of hope.” Not all
have happy endings. Some of the people
failed, recovered and failed again. Some ulti
mately recovered. Some died.
While her parents from time to time may
be disappointed by the results of their efforts,
they remain unwavering in giving a helping
hand to those that most businesses would see
as unemployable and offering them a second
chance to become productive tax-paying citi
zens instead of being a tax burden.
Samantha Perez says, “I am inspired by
my parents. Through their business, I have
met so many incredible employees with real
ly impactful stories and I knew that telling
their stories and starting a conversation about
addiction was the best way I could help.”
Deviate from Denial is available in paper
back on Amazon. It is an exceptional story
told by an exceptional person trying to bring
attention to an exceptionally serious problem.
I am proud of Sam Perez and what she has
already accomplished. She gives me hope for
the future. And she is a Yarbrough Fellow.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough atdick@dick-
yarbrough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139; online atdickyarbrough.com or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/dickyarb.
DICKYARBROUGH
Columnist
The half-century turning point
I’m turning 50 this
month and I am just
not sure how I feel
about that fact yet.
Part of me feels
like I’ve lived in dog
years and am really
somewhere around
350 years old.
Another part of me still feels
like I’m trying to figure out this
whole life thing and what I
want to be when I grow up.
And, yet there’s another part
of me that feels like at this
point. I should have a better
handle on things. Not exactly
sure what those things should
be or how I’d handle them, but I
feel like I should have a better
handle on whatever they may
be.
Just feel like I am supposed
to be stepping into some phase
of my life and I am not sure
what it is just yet.
I’ve always handled these
milestones as some sort of
mini-crisis. When I turned 30,1
felt like most of my life was
over.
Thirty was just ancient to me
when I was younger.
When Mama hit the big 4-0,
she spent the day in bed crying.
My grandfather thought it was
hysterical and would peek in
her room and laugh. “Don’t
know what you’re upset about,
Jeannie,” he said. “You’re get
ting closer to retirement.”
Being my Pop’s trusty side-
kick, I had to add, “And getting
your Social Security.”
Our comments only made her
howl harder.
“Your Mama thinks her life is
half over,” Granny commented
during Mama’s 40th
histrionics. “It ain’t.
The women in our
family live long.”
“Why’s that.
Granny?” I was
curious as to our
longevity.
“Spite, mostly.”
she answered.
Apparently spite’s the moti
vator for a lot of our behaviors.
We never learned why Mama
was so upset over her 40th
birthday; that was the only one
that seemed to bother her.
Yet, when I turned 40,1 had a
similar meltdown, crying at my
desk until co-workers tried to
coax me with food and cards.
Largely because I also didn’t
expect that 40 would bring gray
hairs and acne — what kind of
cruel midlife joke is that? It’s
only increased over the last 10
years too.
So, it’s understandable that
with 50,1 am having a bigger
meltdown.
If Granny were here, she’d
tell me that fifty years is not that
long in the grand scheme of
things really.
Granny embraced getting
older.
I don’t know why exactly, but
she did. Rather than worry
about wrinkles or her age, she
reveled in it.
She looked forward to each
year because in her mind, the
older you were, the more bra
zen and bold you could become
— as if she needed any help in
those areas.
There has long been a myth,
or maybe it’s a fact, that the
older a person gets, the more
their true self and personality
comes out. For some, they
become sweeter and more gen
teel, as has been the case with
Mama.
With Granny, some of her
brimstone and ire was replaced
with a certain joie de vivre
knowing she was older and
people had to put up with her
antics.
“Mother, you can’t do that,”
Mama scolded her one day.
Granny grunted. “Uh oh. I’m
in trouble. You called me moth
er and not mama. And I can do
whatever I want.”
“No, you can’t. You need to
be nice and not say certain
things to people. Just because
you think it doesn’t mean you
need to say it.”
“I can do what I want.”
Granny argued. “I’m an old
woman now; people have to put
up with me.”
“That’s not true,” Mama cau
tioned.
Granny didn’t care. She was
going to do what she wanted,
say what she wanted. Of course,
she had always done that before
but now it was like she had a
license to get away with being
herself. She was living her best
life unabashedly and really
didn’t start doing so until she
got older.
Given the fact that I tend to
be more like Granny than I am
Mama — a fact Mama loves to
remind me of daily — I think I
am at the point where I am
throwing caution out the win
dow and using this milestone as
the opportunity to embrace this
turning point of the calendar.
“We can’t take her any
where,” Mama commented one
afternoon after they had
returned from a doctor’s visit.
I wasn’t sure what she meant
by that as with Granny, it could
have gone in a myriad of direc
tions, some good, but not often;
some bad, but usually worse.
“She said she wanted to stay
in the car, so we rolled down
the windows and parked in the
shade. When we returned, we
found her sitting under a tree,
talking to a bunch of college
kids.”
“What was she talking to
them about?”
“Who knows,” Mama said,
exasperated.
“Don’t listen to those stories
your Mama is saying about
me,” Granny said in the back
ground, always eavesdropping
on the conversation. “I can talk
to who I want to. I was asking
them how they liked going to
Georgia. I might be thinking
about attending. I could be a
co-ed, ya know.”
Mama sighed again but I just
laughed.
The image of my then
80-something year old grand
mother talking under a tree to
some college students, pretend
ing in some way she may go to
college was a hoot. I’m sure if
Granny had decided she wanted
to go, nothing would have
stopped her.
Maybe this half-century turn
ing point will give me that
spunk and fearlessness too.
Sudie Crouch is an award win
ning humor columnist and
author.
SUDIE CROUCH
Columnist
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