KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (WAVY) — It's an act of kindness that cleared a cloud of grief across state lines. A North Carolina restaurant owner drove six hours to deliver what would have been the final meal to a dying woman.
Heather Bowers was a loving wife, mother of two children, and devoted friend.
A close friend, Mary Simmons, told 10 On Your Side that Bowers died in late February after a long battle with cancer.
“Right out of the gate, it was Stage 4,” Simmons said. “What she went through in three and a half years would take down the strongest man.”
She went on to say that the chemotherapy was devastatingly too effective.
While killing the tumor, it was also destroying the remaining Bowers cells.
On his deathbed, Bowers had one last wish. It was a pork plate from Mama Kwan's, an Outer Banks restaurant.
But Simmons wondered how he could make that happen. After all, they lived six hours away in West Virginia.
“We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but she called us around 5 o'clock and said Kevin was already packing,” Simmons said, referring to Mama Kwan's owner, Kevin Cherry. It was,” he said. “He's in the car and he's on his way there. I said, 'What?' And she said he was on his way home. ”
Mr Cherry said he did not think twice before making the long drive to help a customer in need, and said anyone in his position would have done the same.
But he told 10 On Your Side that it was mentally tough.
“I got about halfway up and had to turn off the radio and say to myself, 'I can't keep coming in here,'” Cherry said. “You need to go in with some of the Outer Banks sunshine.”
He was successful, but tragically, Bowers died the next night.
Simmons said what Cherry and her staff did for her friend of 30 years showed her that there are still genuine, kind people in this world.
Cherry said she plans to donate $1,000 to the West Virginia hospice care center where Bowers was cared for in her final moments.
“I think maybe if people see that kind of kindness, it will start to spread,” Simmons said. “That's her hope. He made her smile, and it was one of the last smiles of her life.”
