Shrimp Basket employees save 78-year-old man’s life by checking in when he missed daily visits

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Shrimp Basket employees saved a 78-year-old man’s life after checking in on their frequent customer when he hadn’t shown up for a couple days. 

Charlie Hicks, 78, goes to his local Shrimp Basket restaurant in Pensacola, Florida twice a day. He’s done the same for the last ten years, according to Pensacola News Journal.

He always orders the same thing: Gumbo with rice, but not too much, and no crackers.

When Hicks didn’t show up for two days in a row, employees worried and called in to check on him. 

“Mr. Hicks don’t miss no days,” chef Donell Stallworth told CBS News. “We open the doors up, Mr. Hicks is there to greet us.”

Hicks told the employees he was sick and asked for his usual to be delivered to his apartment. Employees obliged and did the same for two days: setting his gumbo on his doorstep to not get sick themselves. 

But when they didn’t hear from him again and his phone went straight to voicemail, staff leader Denise Galloway and Stallworth headed to his apartment to check in on Hicks. 

After knocking a few times with no answer, the two were about to leave but heard something from inside the apartment. 

“And right when I was going to turn, I heard something, a voice, just like, ‘Help,'” Stallworth said. “And then I opened the door up. He was laying on the ground, and I didn’t know what his condition was, that was the scariest part right there.”

Hicks is diabetic and hadn’t taken his medicine, Today reported. He was weak from dehydration and could barely speak.

“If Donell hadn’t showed up, I was going to have to crawl out the front door and just wait till somebody found me on the sidewalk, but it didn’t go that far,” Hicks told Today. 

Galloway called 911 and Hicks was taken to the hospital to be treated for severe dehydration and two broken ribs. He stayed there for a week and was in physical rehab for another seven, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

Stallworth visited Hicks in the hospital, hand delivering his usual order and chatting him up the way they always did at opening. 

“He said that Donell had saved his life,” his niece, Christina Neeper, told the Pensacola News Journal. “And I’m pretty sure that Donell and (the Shrimp Basket management and staff) saved his life. Donell has been texting him and visiting him. Apparently, they’re best friends.”

The story led to Shrimp Basket offering free gumbo with any purchase Dec. 29. 

“A warm bowl, a little comfort, and a whole lotta care,” the company wrote in a caption announcing the deal. “This gesture is inspired by our team, who live out the value of People Matter day in and day out.”

Hicks now lives in an apartment beside the restaurant and is back to his usual routine.