The Last Time I Ate Popeyes

I grew up eating fried chicken.

Fried chicken. Mashed Potatoes. Mac N Cheese.

I had the typical palate of a kid who feared eating anything green.

When the Popeyes got built off of Highway 85/87 in Fountain, I was thrilled. Dad would take me there to eat because it was Louisiana style food. His homeland. We’d get Popeyes to take home and eat while watching movies we just rented from Blockbuster next door. And that was life. Popeyes was there and would always be there.

Many years later, I was in Lubbock, TX visiting Dad for what would be the last time. On the last day of our trip (yes this was the same trip as the Yellow Cup one), we went to the nursing facility to see Dad one last time. There had been ongoing discussions over the last few days over where he should live after he was released from the facility (which was supposed to happen soon). The conversation was tense and honestly didn’t end with anybody feeling very positive, let alone on the same page. But we said our goodbyes, and left.

I needed something to eat, and Popeyes was on the way back to the hotel, so we stopped. I got back to the room, ate my food, and woke up in the middle of the night to the most horrendous feeling in the world. Now, this was not my first time having food poisoning, but it was by far the worst.

No more details needed on that front.

But needless to say, our 6:00 AM flight was not happening, so in between my episodes I called Southwest and see if they could push our flight by a day.

Eventually, I was able to settle down and fall asleep.

Since we were not leaving that morning, we called up Dad after I was feeling better and said we would be back to visit.

We were able to have a nice conversation, after having argued the night before. And that conversation was the last one I would ever have with him in person.

Sometimes that’s all we get.

God derails our plans because he knows better.

The next time you are inconvenienced by something like an illness or a missed alarm or a detour, consider that God may be protecting you, getting your attention, or pointing you in the right direction you should have been going all along.

I haven’t set foot in a Popeyes since and never will. Not because of the food poisoning even, but because that moment in my life was used for a very specific purpose and I want to leave it that way.*

*This post is not meant to say that Popeyes has bad food or will give you food poisoning. God uses every situation for his will, and in this case, I had to get sick, so I could stay in Lubbock one more day, see Dad one more time, and have a very important conversation that needed to happen in person. I could have eaten anywhere and this very well may have been the end result.*