RIENZI, Miss. — Here’s an inspiring story about faith overcoming a fire.
Last December burglars burned down the only drug store in Rienzi, Mississippi.
They had no way of knowing how much the Alcorn County community needed the drug store.
They also didn’t know how determined its owner would be to rebuild and start over.
“It was a great place for people to come in. A lot of memories people had made by coming in the store. It was my livelihood, obviously, and one night I thought my livelihood was gone, you know,” said Trevor Williams, owner of Smith’s Drug Company.
Williams vividly remembered December 2014 and the fire that destroyed his drug store on Main Street in Rienzi.
“When I got here it was fully engulfed and it was gone. It brought me to my knees. I’d never been though anything like that,” he recalled.
It turned out burglars started the fire to cover their tracks.
And when the flames were finally out, people were sure Rienzi had lost its one and only drug store.
“We were just shocked. It was just such a tragedy,” one woman said.
Jane George of Booneville watched the building burn and knew the community would suffer as well.
“A lot of people don’t have vehicles, you know, to go and get their medicine. And they just depend on it,” said George.
Within a week of the fire, space was donated at a vacant bank and that’s where the drug store has been operating for almost a year.
But this is only temporary because the bad guys clearly underestimated the faith and resolve of Trevor and Kellie Williams.
Construction is well underway on a new drug store for the community, right across from where the original one stood for more than a hundred years.
Noble Williams’ first job was in Smith’s Drug Store.
He later owned the building before turning it over to his son, Trevor.
Williams said the new drug store will be bigger and better, but still have one attraction that always kept customers coming back.
“One of the big treats that everybody talks about, especially with the children, is the dipped ice cream. And we hope to continue it when we get in the new building,” said Noble Williams.
It’s a new birth for a business that survived a tornado and the depression, and is now rising from the ashes.
“It’s just a miracle and a dream come true for us,” said Trevor Williams.
If the weather cooperates, the new drug store will be finished by the start of 2016.
Police have not arrested anyone for the 2014 break in and fire.