I was sitting on the steps underneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis when I noticed Angela—a sophomore studying psychology and marketing at the University of Minnesota—and her parents, Manae and Kenny, taking photos. After I said hello, they asked if I had any ideas on how to get the Arch in their photos. We were almost directly under it, so it was difficult to get the whole thing, but the blue sky and warm weather had everyone smiling. (They are from St. Paul, MN, so they said the fact that it was sixty degrees with no snow on the ground was fabulous.)

Kenny told me he’d owned a men's clothing store in the heart of St. Paul on University Avenue for 13 years, but it was destroyed this past summer—along with more than 200 other businesses along that stretch—during the unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd. They said the months that followed were extremely tough on the family, but the amount of support they received from friends, family, community, and even strangers was tremendously helpful.

Though they've lived in Minnesota for twenty years, they decided not to rebuild their store. Instead, they were driving to Louisiana to visit friends and to see what kind of business opportunities they might find there.