10 questions
Story & Photography By Susan O'Connor

Devotion and service to family and God are hallmarks of Susan Smith’s life.
Raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Susan chose Colorado State University for her higher education, mainly for the skiing, she said with a smile.

“They had an occupational therapy program there with a clinic on campus where they were treating children,” she said. “It intrigued me and I decided to major in occupational therapy. Little did I know at the time that I would be using my profession at home with my own child years later.”

She completed her degree at the University of Kansas, and it was in Kansas City that she met her husband, Lindley, through mutual friends. He was in graduate school in Missouri at the time but a native of Arkansas. They soon married and moved to Arkansas, where Lindley has had an impressive career in banking.

Their first child, Elizabeth, was born with severe brain injury that necessitated an intensive 16-hour a day therapy program for the first six years of her life.

“That was my life and I didn’t work outside of that,” Susan said. “We had three more children and I stayed at home for the next 26 years, raising my four children.”

Susan home schooled her children for 10 years.

Top priority for Susan and Lindley has been teaching their children to be well rounded, service-minded adults and in the process a very healthy lifestyle and work ethic has evolved. The family maintains a large garden and orchard, which provides healthy, natural food choices. Cooking and having meals together at home are important.

Recently, the Smiths opened Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a restaurant known for its healthy menu. Located on Nettleton Avenue next to Fed-X/Kinkos, the business was a perfect fit for the health-minded family and also an opportunity to teach the youngest two children, Stephen, 17, and Caroline, 14, about work ethic and business.

Susan also developed an online business, Gravel Road Goodies, to engage Elizabeth in a work venture. Son Jonathan is a junior at Belmont University in Nashville majoring in music business and production.

What do you think families miss most when they fail to eat regular meals together? The family table is so important to us that we had a large round table made with a lazy susan in the middle, because we think sharing our day and using the table time to teach our children is extremely important. A round table puts you in eye contact with everyone at the table. It takes a deliberate effort to put food on a table and expect your family to sit together and eat. It won’t happen naturally. If you don’t create teachable sharing times with family, you miss the details of their lives.

During the years that you home schooled your children, what was most challenging? EVERYTHING! When we started, I had a disabled 14-year-old who needed all of her school work rewritten in large print so she could see it, a third grader who couldn’t stay in his seat for more than five minutes, a kindergartner and a two-year-old. But really, the most challenging aspect was me. I had to learn a new level of patience with my children because I never got a break from them. It was a good growing experience for me.

How has growing up with a disabled sibling had positive ramifications for your younger three children? We wanted our younger children to grow up being sensitive not only to their sister, but to everyone in need. We also wanted them to have gratitude for their own talents and abilities in order to use them to serve others. The more we serve others, the less time we have to be introspective about what’s not right about ourselves. It is the best deterrent to depression I have found.

What items do you grow in your garden and orchard? We have a family garden with all the regular vegetables. This year, we planted asparagus, which will take three years for it to harvest. Our big project this past spring was to plant 100 blueberry bushes. We have added our homemade “Berry Berry Blueberry Muffins” to the breakfast menu at Tropical Smoothie Café.

Who taught you to cook? My mother. She is a fabulous cook and she’s all about presentation. She cooks much more beautiful, gourmet food than I do. She really didn’t teach me until I was an adult, though. She always sent us to the yard while she was cooking. She liked to cook without interruption!

What is the best seller at Gravel Road Goodies? “Little Bites of Gravel Road,” which are clusters of almonds and walnuts baked in meringue. The other popular one is our “Dirt Clods,” which are rich dark chocolate and cream truffles, hand rolled to look like dirt clods.

What item on the Tropical Smoothie menu is your personal favorite? The hummus sandwich. It is delicious and it is a beautiful sandwich!

What important lessons about life do you see Steven learning in his role at Tropical Smoothie? Stephen is 17 and learning a great deal about not only the restaurant business, but how hard owning your own business is. He really likes the marketing and catering aspects of it. But he doesn’t think he wants to be in the food business as a personal career. So, that alone has been valuable for him to see what he doesn’t like about it, as he is beginning to think seriously about career choices.

What is one of your top goals for the next five years? Since we still have two children to raise, that is our top goal. My personal goals are to be able to serve my family and my community through the restaurant and as a therapist. I enjoy serving the community through great healthy food. Also, (very part time right now) I treat children with developmental delay. I hope I can encourage them and their parents to accept the life they’ve been given and make the most of it, in spite of their disabilities. I have learned that life is not primarily about ability or disability, it’s about having a caring heart about others and serving them in whatever way you can.

If you and Lindley could escape tomorrow to any locale, where would you go?
That’s easy. Our favorite place to go once a year is to Billy Graham’s training center in Asheville, N.C. It is a beautiful mountain setting where we can get refreshed and refueled through Bible teaching and relaxation to come home and do the things we believe God has called us to do with renewed energy and joy.