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be like that with people around me , just like the way she is ," she said . " I love how she did things in her coffee shop , and her style ."
The Alabama coffee shop was sold a few years ago , much to Ella Grace ' s dismay at the time , to facilitate a move by her grandpa to the Lake Cumberland area to report for chaplain duty at a local organization .
Ella Grace took the closing of the coffee shop a bit rough .
" When she sold the shop , I was so sad because I was hoping it would remain in the family ," she said . " And that maybe one day I could run it with her ."
She recalled that her
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nine-year-old self had confidently asserted to her grandma that she would someday when she grew up be joining her in the business world !
As fate would have it , though they didn ' t get to go into business together at the Alabama shop , they are now operating The Gracious Table together .
And Janice knew even back then that her granddaughter , the fledgling business leader , was serious from the get-go .
" She would come to the coffee shop and don her little apron and help us with the coffee ," Janice said .
Young Ella Grace at one point moved with
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her family to Michigan from Alabama , and Janice continued running the coffee shop there in Alabama for seven more years , until her husband was transferred to Somerset .
Finding herself in a new town , Janice decided to attempt retirement , which only lasted a couple years because restlessness set in , and so she decided to open a business that became The Gracious Table .
" I thought I would retire , but after two years I was bored and didn ' t want to stay home anymore ," she said .
" And I love people ," she added .
" Then I decided I was
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going to open a shop downtown , because I gravitated toward downtown – there ' s something about it I just love !"
Janice thought it might be time to take Ella Grace up on the precocious offer she made in that little Alabama coffee shop several years ago . So she called her grandchild up and said , " If you ' re ready , are you still serious about opening a shop together ?"
That was a year ago February , and Ella Grace said she was surprised the call ended up coming so soon .
" I knew she would do it , but I thought it would be a couple more years
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