The day Hicks walked back through the door of the Shrimp Basket, Stallworth was waiting. “I’m glad to have you back, buddy,” he told him. Hicks, for his part, said everything he needed to say in four words. “We made a connection.”
Stallworth later reflected on what Hicks meant to him and the team. “He’s that uncle,” he said. “He’s that grandfather. He’s that best friend. He’s all in one.”
In a statement, Shrimp Basket said that one of its core values is that “people matter” and that Stallworth’s actions were “a powerful example of that value in action.” The company added that since the story became public, staff across all of their locations had begun recognizing their own regulars and finding ways to show up for them.