By Barry Wise Smith
Photo by Jordan Wald
Evelyn Popwell is a fixture on her stool in the checkout line at Piggly Wiggly River Run. Popwell, who turns 92 this October, has been at the store since opening day on November 15, 2006.
“Evelyn is an unbelievable worker,” says supervisor Saba Shunnarah. “She’s always on time and never calls out. You don’t see too many 91-year-olds driving to work four days a week. The customers love her. She’s a blessing; she’s family.”
Popwell—who has three children, four grandchildren, three great grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren— got her start in the grocery game decades before she came to the Pig. She went to work at the Western in Cahaba Heights in 1974, where she stayed for 311/2 years until the store closed in 2005. “When I worked at Western, I had a key to the store,” Popwell says proudly. “I got there earlier than almost everyone, except the Deli Department.”
When the Western announced its closing, it was one of Popwell’s regular customers who suggested she move to Piggly Wiggly. “Mr. Stan’s sister (Stan Virciglio who owns the store) was one of my customers at the Western,” Popwell says. “When the store was closing, she told me I needed to go to work for the Pig. I talked to Mr. Stan, and he gave me a job. He came to the store on opening day and made a point of coming over to me to make sure I was settling in.”
These days, Popwell works four days a week from five a.m. to 11. Each workday, she makes the 22-mile drive from Odenville, where she lives in a house built for her on her son’s property. Potwell lived in Cahaba Heights with her husband, a carpenter, and her two sons and daughter until her husband passed away in 1981. “I’ve always worked,” Potwell says. “And after my husband passed, I had to support the kids.”
Popwell starts her days at three a.m. to get to the store by five. Her daily routine includes making herself a biscuit for breakfast, feeding someone’s cat (“he’s not mine, but I feed him every morning,” she laughs) and reading her Bible. “By the time I do that and get myself ready, it’s time to go,” she says. Popwell uses her drive time for prayer. “I do a lot of praying while I drive—for my family and my co-workers. They all mean so much to me.”
And while most folks take retirement before they turn 65, Popwell keeps on going. “I can’t stay home,” she says. “On the days I don’t work, I miss it. The weekends seem very long. I don’t like to be idle.” She also enjoys embroidery and has been known to stitch when work is slow. “I have half-finished pieces all over my house and sometimes at the store too,” she laughs.
What most keeps her going is the people—customers and co-workers who she loves like family. “The best thing about continuing to work is the people,” Popwell says. “I have very good customers; I even have customers from the Western who followed me over here.”
And with her 92nd birthday on the horizon, does Popwell have any plans to retire and ride off into the sunset? The answer is a resounding no! “I will keep working as long as I can. I have no desire to quit,” she says. “I imagine I’ll work ‘til they ask me to leave.”
