Spirited Brunch, The Food Section’s signature event, has always been devoted to the dishes served by faith groups. But over its nine-year history, the program has been blissfully removed from the reasons that food became part of religious traditions in the first place. Namely, it comforts when congregants are in pain, stabilizes when a community is shaken, and reminds those who partake of another place or time.
This year is different, as readers who live in the Charleston area know. The co-host of our yearly Spirited Brunch subscribers’ reception, Annelise Simmons, tragically died on March 26 after being struck by a truck while taking her morning walk through downtown Charleston. Simmons, 78, was in a Broad Street crosswalk when she was killed.
Simmons and her husband, Jack, operated 15 Church Street Bed & Breakfast, a vocation which her children said perfectly suited her inclination to look after others. A longtime kindergarten teacher and recent survivor of pancreatic cancer, Simmons returned to the treatment center as a volunteer to accompany chemotherapy patients who would otherwise be alone.
In her last moments, her daughter Suzannah Latané Simmons told mourners at Simmons’ April 12 memorial service, “she was thinking not of herself, but all of us.”
After warmly recalling his mother’s chronic altitude sickness and faulty sense of direction, Chilton Simmons picked up the same theme. “I don’t believe she’s [in heaven] yet,” he said. “She likely would have gotten lost along the way…It’s actually comforting to think my mom is down here with us. She’ll get to heaven—after stopping to talk and making sure everyone she loves is OK.”
Earlier, his brother Warren Simmons had confirmed the prediction: “Heaven’s in for a rude awakening, and a strong angel.”
Strength and stubbornness were the characteristics cited most frequently at Simmons’ service, held at the French Huguenot Church. Jack Simmons remembered his wife—an avid bridge player who prioritized physical fitness—as “headstrong” and “relentless.”
Suzannah Simmons credited the women in her family with practicing and handing down perseverance. Her grandmother, Madeleine Ware, was a member of the French Resistance who faked passports for Jews facing death under Nazi occupation.
“Stubbornness has its virtues,” Simmons said. “It means you stand up for what you believe, even when it’s uncomfortable, and trust me: it’s uncomfortable for me to speak today. But part of why I’m standing up here is not only to share my mom’s beauty, but for us to take this tragedy and ensure others do not suffer the same fate. Someone was hit on Calhoun Street today.”
Simmons continued, “Be an advocate for pedestrian safety in downtown Charleston. Don’t stop when the dust settles.”
In honor of Simmons, The Food Section has asked Charleston Moves, one of her designated memorial charities, to join Spirited Brunch this year. Representatives of the multimodal organization will table at College of Charleston’s Alumni Center, alongside several congregations located off the peninsula.
After all, while Spirited Brunch is themed around food and its meaning, the self-guided snack tour of prayerful spaces also offers the rare opportunity to explore a city’s history, architecture, and cultural landscape by foot. That’s only possible because downtown Charleston predates cars by centuries, so its oldest houses of worship are clustered together.
Still, that doesn’t mean peninsular streets are safe. On average, a person is hit by a car every other day in Charleston County, one of the deadliest places for pedestrians in the country.
While many of those crashes occur beyond downtown, a 2018 study by the South Carolina Department of Transportation showed that lower Meeting Street, lower King Street, Calhoun Street, and St. Philip Street are the second, third, fourth, and sixth most dangerous roads in the state for people walking and biking. Even if you’re not familiar with those streets, you’ll see they’re prominent on the Spirited Brunch map: There are participating congregations on all four of them.
Spirited Brunchers—along with everyone else who walks, bikes, or otherwise powers themselves through downtown Charleston streets—shouldn’t have to worry about potentially fatal vehicular collisions when they set out. I hope you’ll join the Simmons family in supporting pedestrian safety.
Finally, if you’d like to toast Simmons and a brighter multimodal future, Jack Simmons has asked that this year’s party proceed as planned. All paying subscribers are invited to join us on Sunday, May 3 at 11:30 a.m. Hope to see you there.
No Comments