STORY AND PHOTOS BY JACKSON SHARPE
The Spicy Sisters
Two friends with a comMon
interest for serving people goOd
foOd finalLy come together to
fulfilL their own dream.
The phone rang at 3:00 A.M. The
Emanuel County Medical Center was
looking for Tricia Conner, the on-call
respiratory therapist. As a single mother with
no one to watch her small son Kyle, Tricia woke
him, loaded him in his car seat, and headed to
work. A co-worker would have to help watch
him throughout the night shift.
Tricia’s innate desire to help people had
brought her to respiratory therapy. However,
many of her patients couldn’t afford proper
treatment. Seeing people suffer left Trish feeling
heartbroken, wishing she was able to do more to
help. Conflicted, she began questioning whether
respiratory therapy had been the right choice.
Another dream, rooted in many memories from
her childhood, stirred within her.
When she was just 13 years old, Trish
began working at her dad’s steak and seafood
restaurant, McKinney’s Pond, in Midville,
Georgia, along with her older brother and sister.
Trish remembers, “There were times Bucky was
washing dishes, Sandy was waiting tables, and I
was running the cash register.” McKinney’s Pond
had been in their family for generations.
78 Toombs County Magazine