AT OLDE Town Protein & Energy in Petersburg, a mother watches her children huddled over adjoining, pint-sized tables, paint brushes moving thoughtfully across river rocks. These stolen moments refuel her mind and body. Her protein drink ignites a spark that will soon blaze through her to-do list while the timeout calms her soul, enabling her to be more fully present for her family when they walk out the door.
From her position behind the sales counter, Stacy Thompson watches, too.
Like her life, the rocks were once part of a massive, unyielding boulder that surrendered to a relentless, flowing force. There is beauty in brokenness and purpose in pain.
Thompson also sees a self-care model that was absent from her life for too long. Like diamond dust sparkles weightlessly floating in the early morning sun’s rays, her mission is to offer more than energy teas, protein shakes, and iced coffees. It’s to sprinkle hope for a healthier, more healed lifestyle for each customer who walks through the door.
She sees nothing like her earliest days of motherhood when rocks of worry and anxiety piled up mercilessly. She struggled with depression from an early age, battling chronic back pain due to cauda equina syndrome, seeing her parents divorce, and losing both grandfathers within a couple of months in her sophomore year. This was the rocky foundation upon which her earliest motherhood experiences stood as she quarantined with her newborn from November to March during the 2017 flu season at the advice of his pediatrician. Fear of losing him and pain in her back due to the pregnancy was more than she could handle.
“Even as young as I was, a [spinal] fusion had been tossed around for stability, but they hated to with my age. But they went ahead and did it after my son because I was in terrible pain,” Thompson explained. “I had the fusion in January of 2019 when my son was 14 months old, and I had postpartum depression that I hadn’t taken care of at that time. Then, here comes the depression with the back surgery because I couldn’t do anything for my son. I was using a walker to get around, and I had a year’s recovery from that. So pain pills put me temporarily out of my physical and mental pain.”
It was not how she wanted to live; neither did her husband.
Thompson said, “I was totally disconnected from everything, and it just got worse and worse because the more you take, the more you want. I was in the addiction for 10 months, and my doctor cut me off, cold turkey, and my husband looked at me the same day and said, ‘It’s either us or that; I’m not doing it.’”
She was afraid of withdrawal, but her love for her family and her family’s love for her was greater than her fear. Her father brought her kratom, a natural, alternative pain management solution that also helps withdrawal symptoms.
“It didn’t take it completely away, but it eased it tremendously, and I started to feel like the old me. But I was back to around 235 pounds, and, of course, the more weight, the worse my back was hurting. Around the same time all this happened, Nspire Nutrition came to Lewisburg, and I shifted my energy to drinking teas, getting a tea every day,” she stated. “Before long, I had lost so much weight.”
Surprised by the weight loss and familiar with roller coaster gains due to polycystic ovary syndrome, Thompson feared the pounds she lost were somehow health-related. She was surprised to find out otherwise.
“But, I still hadn’t had any treatment for the depression. I was back down to 150 pounds, helping my husband some with his construction, and I felt great physically. Then, we got pregnant with our daughter. I was in a lot of pain the whole time with her, and I was depressed.”
But this time, she immediately sought help for the depression and found success managing it through a Franklin psychiatric group. She also discovered the natural calming and anti-inflammatory properties of THCA in products sold by High Forest Releaf in Lewisburg. These resources, combined with the Herbalife teas and products, are now a way of life.
She said, “I noticed the difference the products made with my issues, and after four years of them telling me [at Nspire in Lewisburg], ‘Hey, you need to open one,’ I’ve finally got the opportunity here in Petersburg. I just want to help other people — people who feel chained to pharmaceuticals.”
She continued, “I think everybody’s going through something, whether it be mental, physical, whatever; everybody’s going through something. We humans need to be good to other humans, be somebody’s safe place, and be somebody’s friend who doesn’t have another friend in the world. I’m here for anybody, whether they’re looking for somebody who may understand health problems at a young age or in addiction and looking to get out. Let somebody try to help you because nobody’s alone in all this.”
Thompson’s support system includes her husband, parents, family, friends, and medical teams. Above all, it includes her faith.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere without God. I wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for prayers, good people, and God,” she declared.
And now, it’s her turn to lend her support to others.
“I try to make it really kid-friendly around here so mothers can come and take a load off for a minute — get them a drink and let the kids paint a rock for the rock garden. I do free kids’ drinks. Just let them pick a stevia flavor, and they get a pretty flavored water like Mama. I just want to be a safe haven for mothers who are in that season.”
Her life today is as bold and beautiful as the children’s stones in the garden. Her mission is clear.
“I don’t plan to ever give up. I don’t want to see anybody else give up if I can help in any way.” GN
