By VICTORIA SCHNAUFER, Student Reporter
Door bells chime weekday mornings with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filling the air on 516 Olive Street.
“What can I get you,” Ms. Eva Welch asks each customer with a smile, while they unknowingly give this woman an answered prayer and a closer walk with God.
She ventured to small expresso shops on the west coast while visiting her sons after losing her husband after 48 years. Sitting there with waves rustling she felt lead by Christ to bring that small relaxing coffee shop atmosphere to the community of Alva.
“God just kept telling me it’s what I needed to do,” Welch said.
Two years after being home, her local family helped her transform her husband’s hand built work shop into the dainty parlor it is now. 13 years later at 80 years old, her shop doors remain open 7 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.
She spends her time talking with costumers, cleaning her shop, preparing for tomorrow and making lists of things to get when she has the opportunity to run errands. The supportive community and her close family keeps the little business successful.
“Some people think Eva’s Coffee is just a place for just coffee but it is so much more,” Welch said with a grin.
Welch moved into the shop making half of the building her home. “I’m here as long as God wants me to be, nothing has fallen apart or gotten to be where I can’t handle it,” she said. “So, I feel like I am still supposed to be here.”