When life threw Steve and Sue Francis challenge after challenge, faith in God was what helped them hope for better things.

(0:24) We hear testimony of a long-awaited Easter for the Francis family, whose business experienced a fire that left everything unsalvageable.

(1:56) Meet Steve and Sue Francis, owners of the Country Smoke House in Almont, MI, and how what started as a hobby bloomed into a business of over 80 employees and national reach.

(5:54) Cheryl, one of the Smoke House’s employees, talks about the Francises are as employers, mentioning their dedication to and pride in their faith.

(7:49) Steve and Sue face a series of challenges that flip their business — and their lives — on their heads.

(10:10) After a fire that devastates the Smoke House, the Almont community gathered around Sue and Steve with parts to rebuild the building, hands to help work, and, most importantly, prayer.

(14:58) The Smoke House reopens its doors to great success and support from the community, and Steve and Sue reflect on faith in God as the key thing that brought them through these trials.

Reporting by Michael Stechschulte; narration and production by Ron Pangborn. Visit the Country Smoke House in Almont at www.countrysmokehouse.com.

Listen to ‘Detroit Stories’ on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. Podcasts also will be posted biweekly on DetroitCatholic.com. 

[singing]

Steve: I went to Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night for all the new confirmed people. And it was just nice to go there and they played a song and “gonna rise up again from the ashes.” And boy, that was tough. That was tough, but it was an awesome Easter we're here.

Narrator: The relief of getting to Easter is something a lot of us can relate to. After a devastating pandemic and a norm-shattering quarantine the year leading up to this Easter has seemed like an interminable Lent. But this day, with its promise that the most unthinkable suffering can be redeemed, that our hopes lie in heaven, that we can rise from ashes, is a message particularly compelling to Steve and Suzanne Francis.

[fire truck sirens]

Narrator: This is because a year and a half ago, they experienced the most difficult 10 days of their lives. It started with Steve’s near-fatal heart attack and the death of his father 4 days later, and ended with their 35-year-old business, the Country Smoke House, in flames.

News anchor: Firefighters from six departments, battled the blaze for hours at the country smokehouse. That's just off 59 in Almont. The business has been a tourist favorite for decades.

Steve: And I walked in there and you walked around and see what was going on and see the devastation of it. It just was, it was unbelievable.

Sue: There are a lot of news reporters there and one of them went right up to Steve to get his reaction, and his reaction was that, um, this is Satan’s work and I'm not gonna let him win and we will prevail, we will come back and we will rebuild, and we did.

Narrator: Welcome to Detroit Stories, a podcast on a mission to boldly share the stories of the people and communities in Southeast Michigan. These are the stories that fascinate and inspire us.

Steve and Sue are the owners of the Country Smoke House in Almont, MI, a 2,800-person town an hour north of Detroit. It’s the largest deer processing facility in Michigan and one of the region’s largest employers. Like many great ventures it all started in a garage – the Francis’ one-car garage where they would seasonally process deer. It was a hobby for Steve who had always grown up in the meat business. His parents were farmers in Almont and they owned a meat company in Detroit they called Butcher Boy. He grew up helping them raise the family’s cows and other animals and processing and shipping meat to the Detroit market. He was 12 when he met his wife Suzanne on the school bus on the way to school.

Sue: We also went to the same church.

Narrator: The two married and had three kids. Tired of the long drive to the city, Steve decided to leave his parent’s business. He opened up a Buscemi’s Pizza and Sub while deer-processing in their garage on the side.

Steve: We did that for two years in the garage there and grew so well.

Sue: We were only processing deer, but became so, so busy that people — what they really wanted was our sausage from the deer. And when we found that people really liked it and wanted us to open a retail store.

Sue: We bought some land out in 53. We built our first building, 64 by 42 was our first shop. We said, we're just going to do this for fun. Well, that turns into a monster of fun.

Narrator: The monster of fun didn’t quit. There was so much work that Suzanne quit her job as a nurse so she could help Steve with the shop. They built a retail store in front of a small processing plant.

Steve: Worked our way up to 80-some employees and open seven days a week and just kind of ran wild. So we always wanted to make it, like, I know you joked around to make this the Frankenmuth of Michigan, where you can come here with all the sausage you want. So we started out making two, three products. Next thing you know, we're up to 169 different products. Our primary function is sausage, [inaudible] ethnic style, you know, mettwurst, cheese sausage, things like that. We want old world sausage. And it kind of grew from there. Just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And we knew that we had to expand on the store here to accommodate the bigger productions that we needed to make.

Steve: I've always wanted to have something on to the next generation. I'm six generation — actually my grandson is six generations. My son's son, he's in here, he's seven now. And he comes in, thinks around in here on the weekends, once in a while/ Plays around on the table and hopefully we can inspire him into, or any other grandkids that kind of step into this thing, because, you know, we've got 35 years of our life into this. I'd like to see it go on from there, try to build some kind of a family legacy like Kowalski is and Koegel’s, and people like that. I don't want to work at something and just see it go away after one generation.

Narrator: The 20-foot-tall steer outside the store became iconic, tourists gravitated towards the billowing smoke coming off of the barbeque grills every weekend and the cozy rustic log cabin store. It had become a beloved Almont staple. In a town of 2,200 people, it meant economic stability and prosperity. And the affection was mutual. The Smoke House donated new blackboards to the local high schools. They would fly the Easter Bunny in a helicopter to drop Easter eggs for the local lion’s club. They regularly donated sausage to church brunches and the fire departments’ big breakfasts.

Cheryl: I think they try to make it kind of like a second family atmosphere.

Narrator: This is Cheryl, she’s worked in customer service for the store for years.

Cheryl: I almost felt almost an immediate connection with both Sue and Steve. I mean, they were kind, they were comical, they were funny, hardworking, just a pretty amazing combination of all the things I think we hope to look for when we're searching for a job. Yeah, they were just a great combination of all the things you'd hope for as, you know, a boss and then actually as friends, that's what they became. They became friends.

They had this amazing crucifix in their store and they hung it up proudly so you would see it right when you were leaving to go out the store, and they were never worried about how anyone else would see it. They did that because that's what they wanted to do. And so that was really huge to me because I think it's hard in the world today to be able to express something like that. I admired that. It meant a lot. Okay, as hard as they worked and everything that they did to get to where they were, they still tried to put God in the center of their life, and that’s something my parents did and they taught me and I’m teaching my kids. So I think that the thing that drew me to them and wanting to work for someone like that, I mean, their food is delicious, their quality is amazing, but I just think they stand for so much more than just that.

Narrator: As the company approached their 30th anniversary it seemed as if circumstances couldn’t be more ideal. Business was so good they announced plans to expand again by constructing a new manufacturing plant, to keep up with the demands of their growing customer base. But while Steve was prepping for their busiest quarter, he had what is called a heart attack. He was two and half hours from the hospital.

Steve: They say I shouldn't have made it, but we did. And it was a miracle instead that I'm still alive. So I guess God's still got a plan for me, always keeps telling me, you know, that you're not done yet.

N: Two days later Steve was released from the hospital when he gets a call from the local police department.

Steve: And they're like, Hey, we need you to get over here right now. Your dad — something's going on. I get over there. He had a massive heart attack and he died getting into his car, going off to feed his Buffalo.

Narrator: Steve and Suzanne took him to be buried up in Gaylord beside his parents and grandparents. They had a small private ceremony and spent the night in a hotel. At midnight, Steve got a call. The Country Smoke House was on fire.

Sue: So we were just settled down from a long five, six day funeral and we set it down, got the call, and we jumped in the car and drove four hours back. And by the time we got back, it was around 4:00 AM and the fire had been calmed down and it was gone. Everything was gone by the time we got back. It was 99% loss. The whole roof was caved in. Everything was burnt on the inside.

Steve: Nothing was salvageable.

Sue: Yeah, it was a rough 10 days. Real rough.

Narrator: But he didn’t have to bear the roughness alone. The small tight-knit community he had been a part of nearly his whole life rose up to help. The dozens of firefighters who descended on the scene were many of the smokehouse’s former employees and the Francis’ friends. Steven remembers all the customers who came the morning after the fire to see how they could help. Students at the local Catholic school, Bishop Kelly, were praying every day for the Smoke House. Fr. Jerry and Fr. Steve of came by to offer help and consolation. A non-denominational church, knowing the employees would be out of work, sent a 58-foot semi-load with boxes of food. Employees hustled around to recover what little bit of the meat could be salvaged. And hugs, tears, and words of consolation were shared among all.

Sue: The biggest comments from people in the community was “Oh, we’re praying for you.” I mean, there were so many prayers out there for us, that you know, between Steve's heart attack and, you know, he had a lot of issues after the heart attack, too, that we had to get fixed and, you know, plenty of doctors’ visits and here we’re trying to deal with his dad's death and now deal with the fire. It was all so much. And then so many people were just praying for us and we couldn't have made it without it.

Steve: And all the prayers and all the outreach and all the people was just amazing. Just amazing.

N: First on the Francis’ minds were their 87 employees whose livelihood depended on them.

News anchor: Again, the owner, after bad news for the past couple of weeks is still worried about everyone else.

Steve: Yeah, I feel bad for them. I want to figure out what we can do for them. Hopefully my insurance will take care of it, they’re all local people that grew up with me here.

News anchor: Steve Francis, worrying about his workers.

Cheryl: They started trying to have me — trying to keep everyone in the loop. There were group texts, employee texts that went around trying to keep everyone connected. They — checking in on everyone. “How are you doing? How is everything going?” You know, making sure everyone, you know, everyone was able to try to sign up for unemployment, making sure none of us were in need of anything. So, they did, and we had everyone try to stay in touch and in contact. And, you know, a lot of positivity came through that. So we were thankful to have a — they made sure that they reached out to everyone. And we all gathered together to do what we could do, and we’re waiting for the plans of everything reopening again.

Narrator: Steve knew he had to rebuild. Not only for the family business that he poured his life into, but for the hundreds of employees who had grown to depend on them. But it wouldn’t be easy.

Steve: Five and a half million dollars to rebuild it. We were under insured. And you know what it's like when insurance companies get your money, and we still are fighting with them.

Sue: And it was hard. It was a daily hard. And when you said something about questioning your faith, I got to say, sometimes I'm like, “Why God, why this?” After that, after that 10 days, my mom had a stroke. We went through COVID. Just so many other health issues came up between he and myself. And it was always challenging, but boy, we could have never got through it without our faith

Narrator: COVID complicated things even more. It was near impossible to get contractors and laborers, but they did have plenty of employees looking for work.

Steve: So we actually turned a lot of our butchers and our catering department into workers. I taught them all how to put floor drains in and how to pour concrete and how to paint, how to hang drywall.

Sue: They actually did the demolition of everything.

Steve: Yep, our employees, we did our own demolition of the building, taking in and out of there. So it was —

Sue: They worked so hard at that.

Narrator: Help came pouring in from unlikely places. When they needed to set roof trusses on the rebuild a friend of the family sent an entire crew of men to help.

Steve: It's amazing the people that really rallied, I mean, block people, I mean, carpenters, people that we knew that really were customers, or are they just all came together and gave me deals and helped me out in products. And it was a big deal. It guess I didn't realize how big my company really wasn't until it burned. I just thought we were just a little podunk country market, but boy, was I wrong?

Sue: Letters and people calling and sending things from all over was really, really heartwarming.

Narrator: A grueling 17 months later the rebuild was complete. The old 5,500 square foot building that had burned was replaced with a 38,000 square foot state of the art building. Steve and Suzanne had poured everything into the rebuild and were in dire need of income. But would people come? When the store re-opened on March 12 it had been 17 months since the fire. Could the re-opening of the smoke house still be on peoples’ radar?

Sue: You just have to put it in God's hands and know that he's there helping us all the way through. And he has, you should see this beautiful building. It's amazing. Never thought it could be, it would have ever turned out.

Narrator: On March 12 Steve and Suzanne said their daily prayers, and opened the Smoke House doors.

[bell dinging]

Narrator: If you are lucky enough to be familiar with Almont, you know, of course, that people came in droves. It's just the way they are. Masks and 6-feet-apart notwithstanding, they wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of supporting a member of their town.

Steve: You know, that country song — you remember that country song up says, “everybody dies famous in a small town?” It's kinda the same thing here. When you're from small town, you know, I thought we were just, you know, podunk Almont out here, you know, but when I see people come up from Ohio, Chicago, Indiana all over to come here, I actually had to leave the building. It got so emotional from people wanting to hug you and kiss you. And “Oh my God, we're praying for you.” I mean, it was just nonstop. I mean, it was such an emotional rollercoaster. The first three days, I just couldn't handle it, it was tough. That was probably tougher than the heart attack was! All the customers coming in and seeing their faces and just hugging you in, you know, just praying for you. I was like son of a gun.

Cheryl: We as employees, we’re so excited and anticipating, you know, everything, just the doors are finally open, all the customers coming and there were some of them, you know, clapping pumps were high-fiving. Everyone was so excited, so happy.

Narrator: For Steve and Suzanne, however, this time marked an opportunity to finally rest. And breathe. And behold the profundity of the resurrection in all that it can be.

[singing]

Sue: Well, I tell ya, when I talk to people now and they, “How did you get through something like that?” And there's this, it's hands down, there's — how do you go through things like this without having faith in God? You just, you can't do it alone. You know, we, we lost his dad, I almost lost him. We lost our 35 year old business. And, and so many employees. And you just, you pray. I have learned to pray in a way that I never have before. I have a much closer relationship with God, and I know that I can't go on without him

Steve: The whole thing — I think I got stronger in my belief in God, because he helped me get through some tough times. He gave me the ability and strength to get up morning after morning and morning, see — to come up to devastation and see it finally start to turn.

Narrator: Detroit Stories is a production of the Detroit Catholic and the Communications department of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts.