THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601090085
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
Friends and family members call Gloria Forde the Energizer bunny because she keeps going and going and going.
In 1983, the Surry native, a 1970 graduate of L.P. Jackson High School with a degree in biology from Norfolk State University, was working as assistant lab director at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. She accepted a promotion in her government job that year and went to Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth to work as a nuclear technologist.
Tragedy struck after less than three years on the job there. Forde, just 35 at the time, had a massive stroke. Doctors discovered she had a tumor at the base of her brain.
The stroke and the surgery to remove the tumor left her an invalid. She couldn't walk, talk or take care of herself. Her memory was gone.
``Boom - it just happened,'' she says today.
It took three long years of rehabilitation to regain some of what she had before the stroke. Her memory, especially for information necessary to do her complicated job, never did return.
In 1989, Forde was knocked down again. She had a rare blood disorder, doctors told her. The disease with an incredibly long name is basically the opposite of hemophilia: Instead of failing to clot, her blood clots too easily - and it may have contributed to the stroke. She takes medication for it today. She's also developed asthma and epilepsy. Enough health problems to stop most human beings in their tracks.
But Forde is the bunny, remember? Her family and friends have her pegged right.
Last week, the woman who keeps going and going realized her most recent dream. She opened her own restaurant.
Oh, it's small. And it lacks a lot of atmosphere, standing on the side of the road as it does in Rushmere.
But folks, wait until you taste those crab cakes.
And watch Forde smile when you tell her they are the absolute best you have ever put your teeth around.
Getting where she is today - even though it is a small beginning - took a long time.
During her last health crisis, Forde got the idea that she wanted to go back to school. Her doctors said no. Take your disability and relax, they advised. Trying to work again would be just too stressful, they told her. And school, well, that was out of the question.
``It's funny,'' she says. ``I couldn't remember anything about my job before I had the stroke, and I wouldn't have even thought about going back to the lab. I knew I couldn't do anything that would hold me responsible for other people's lives.''
But she could still cook. Forde has always enjoyed cooking. She's always been good at it. And, despite her medical problems, she had somehow managed to retain the talent.
So in 1992, Forde enrolled at Johnson & Wales University at Norfolk Culinary Arts. Whether anybody liked it or not, she was going to be a chef. She graduated, with honors, with a degree in culinary arts. While there, she garnered national awards for cake decorating, table decorating and food presentation.
``I grew up on a farm, and I have always cooked. I had a small catering business before I got sick. I got into that when I did a friend's wedding, just as a favor. Everybody wanted to know who did it, and I got my first couple of jobs out of that. People started calling.''
So, once she graduated from Johnson & Wales, Forde picked up with her catering where she'd left off. Today, Deliciously Yours by Gloria specializes in ethnic foods: African, Jewish - you name it.
She has two friends, also chefs, who help with that. They were busy through the holidays, but at the same time she was searching for a place to call her own.
Forde, who lives now in the Park View section of Portsmouth, wanted to be closer to her Surry roots. She looked for space in Smithfield, but everything she found was too expensive.
Then she discovered that a small, low, cinderblock building hanging on the side of U.S. Route 10, just across from the turn to Tyler's Beach, was available. So she has moved in. Her friend, Harriett Debin, and her son, one of three children, are helping in the new endeavor.
For years, Randy's Seafood has specialized mainly in crabs, mainly during crab season. Now that Forde has taken over and changed the name to Randy's Seafood and Country Cooking, the menu has expanded.
When I visited her recently, as though she were in her home kitchen, she insisted I sample her culinary delights.
A little of this and a little of that included a crab cake - delicious! - a piece of fried fillet of whiting, candied yams - fresh sweet potatoes, not canned - a scrumptious cornmeal muffin and my absolute favorite, collards.
Hmmm, I said, as I tasted the greens. There's something different here. I guessed what Forde calls her ``secret'' ingredient in the collard pot, but she asked me not to tell. It got my stamp of approval - and I'm discriminating!
At first, her little restaurant will be take-out only. She hopes to get more catering jobs from her customers. I was there last Thursday. By Friday, she was out of crab cakes well before the lunch rush. Apparently, others agreed with my observation. Good crab cakes.
``Life is too beautiful. God is too sweet,'' Forde says. ``There is always something to do. You just have to put your mind to it.''
And you have to keep going and going and going. MEMO: Randy's Seafood and Country Cooking is open Monday through Saturday for
lunch and dinner, until 9 p.m. Orders of $25 or more will be delivered
as far away as Smithfield or the Surry Nuclear Power Station. Call
357-5023.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Gloria Forde stirs up one of her specialties at her restaurant,
Randy's Seafood and Country Kitchen on Route 10.
by CNB