One word comes to the mind of many who have listened to and read Katherine Wolf’s story: survivor. Wolf suffered a massive brain stroke at the age of twenty-six. However, for Wolf, that has not slowed her down. If anything, it seemed to have propelled her.
Crosswalk had the chance to interview Katherine Wolf outside her new coffee shop. The mission of this coffee shop extends beyond selling coffee; it's dedicated to creating an inclusive space for disabled individuals in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia. One thing about Katherine Wolf is clear: she is on a mission through the camp she founded, which helps physically challenged people. She is ready to offer hope through her words and new book, ‘Treasures in the Dark,’ to help propel and set people free through the story God gave her to tell.
Crosswalk Headlines: How did you start your new coffee shop?
Katherine Wolf: The story began 16 years ago when I had a massive stroke and very nearly died from a condition called an arterial venous malformation that ruptured in my brainstem and caused a massive stroke. After having the stroke, I became severely disabled, as I largely remain today. I use a wheelchair or a walker, and I can’t drive a car. As you can see, my face is paralyzed, and I have several major health challenges. So, entering the disability community left me disillusioned by how this community is really marginalized, and spaces are not created for our population. My husband and I started years ago by creating a camp community where we invite families where someone is disabled to come to camp totally for free and have a vacation-like experience of just a week-long celebration. From those experiences, I decided to start a coffee shop where people with disabilities can find hope and a place to belong.
CWH: How’s the coffee shop going so far?
KW: It’s the sweetness of the Lord that he’s opened it up. I mean, we had no idea this would happen.
CWH: When did you know God called you to write ‘Treasures in the Dark’?
KW: So, I’ve written two books before this. This is my third book, a devotional-style book. It is a few consumable reflections. I call them little reflection entries. It’s just some of the treasure that I found in the darkness.
CWH: It’s a hard season for a lot of people. What advice do you give people walking through the darkness?
KW: If you’re walking through the darkness right now, you’re going to get through it. Darkness does not last forever. After having the stroke and becoming disabled to really being able to come up for air, I found out that I have a great life to live and that God had me here in this body at this moment for a reason. And I believe that if you have breath in your lungs and are on earth, you are not an accident or a mistake and that God wanted you in this story, or you wouldn’t be here. The reality is if you should have died, you would have died. But you are here. And so, the question is, what will you do with the life that God has given you?
CWH: How did you come up with 90 days in the book?
KW: I know all too well, during my rigorous days of endless therapies, that there wasn’t much time to read chapter books. They needed to be a short entry for people who were in the middle of dark times.
CWH: You talk about hope in the book. What does it offer us?
KW: Hope is the escape hatch; it allows us to live the actual life right in front of us, narrows our focus to see what is in the story, and then makes the remains in the story beautiful.
CWH: How have you been able to get through what you’ve had to deal with?
KW: I think my deep faith has really changed how I’ve responded to all of it and the messy middle of it all in recognizing that there is hope on the other side of all the struggle and that somehow God is at work and hasn’t left me.
CWH: What do you say to people who feel like their life isn’t going anywhere because of the hardships they’ve gone through?
KW: I think you change your mind by changing your mindset; the years the Locust ate were not eaten for some reason. They weren’t for you. And that’s not what God had in the story.
Those years were not the ultimate best God had for you. For some reason, you may not understand.
CWH: How would you describe your own personal journey?
KW: It’s been a complicated journey; my first son was six months old when I had the stroke. And so, all those firsts for me were just gone. I was relearning to walk as he was learning to walk. I was relearning to swallow food as he was learning to swallow food, and it was wild. But those first two and a half months after the stroke, I have no memory, including my first Mother’s Day. Fast forward seven and a half years later, after being told repeatedly I would likely never be able to become biologically pregnant again, I was able to have a second child. It’s very special to have him in our lives, and now John is eight years old, and James is sixteen, and they’re both doing wonderfully.
Photo Credit: ©YouTube/Hope Heals
MAINA MWAURA is a freelance writer and journalist who has interviewed over 800 influential leaders, including two US Presidents, three Vice-Presidents, and a variety of others. Maina, is also the author of the Influential Mentor, How the life and legacy of Howard Hendricks Equipped and Inspired a Generation of Leaders. Maina and his family reside in the Kennesaw, Georgia area.