She Smiles When She Talks

When I told Diane Oberkrom I wanted to write a story about her and title it, "She Smiles When She Talks," she laughed. I told her, "You really do!"

She smiled broadly and told me, "I think I was just born with a happy disposition. I've always been a smiler," she said. Believe me, no one has to tell her to smile for a photo, she's already there! 

Her life has not been an easy journey, but she is trusting God as the power who is higher than her circumstances. Diane is a widow and a single mom. Her son, Augie, who's a 2019 Reinhardt University graduate, attends culinary school while working as a chef at a local restaurant in Canton.

Here's Diane, owner and baker of The Soul Food Market, giddy over the recipe she calls, "Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Cushion." Actually, those are gourmet sandwich cookies.

Diane is so well-grounded that she freely lives a delightfully, whimsical lifestyle. She was raised in the church. Her parents and grandparents are Christians and have lived lives of faithfulness to God. It's all she's known growing up she said. "I have always been easy going and I try to do what is right--but not perfectly of course! But I didn't get mad when my husband died--I certainly didn't expect it to happen. He died in his sleep. Augie was 8 years old at the time and he asked me what actually happened to his dad. I didn't plan to answer him the way I did, it just came out of my mouth. I said to him, 'Jesus came to our house and took Dad with him.' I've just always trusted Jesus."

Diane was a successful corporate banker working in downtown Atlanta, and she kept having dreams night after night of starting her own bakery. She'd awaken in the night and write down recipes for cookies, cakes, and cupcakes. She dreamed of putting Bible verses on business card-size tags and attaching them to each individually wrapped treat. It would be in the same way fortune cookies have a message. 

She followed that dream of establishing The Soul Food Market in 2005. It began as an online bakery. Her heart has been not only to delight the palate of her customers, but she's also passionate about nourishing their souls with the Good News of Scripture.

I've seen her smile when she answered the phone for takeout orders and catering gigs. She named her culinary creations like a loving mother gives pet names to her beloved children.  When an Elvis impersonator came to the Canton Theater, she provided refreshments in honor of the actor and Elvis, serving grilled peanut butter sandwiches, and banana and bacon sandwiches. Her "Love Me Tender" dessert was a banana cupcake with peanut butter, buttercream frosting and bacon crumbles, and the "Blue Suede Shoes" cupcake had blue butter cream frosting. She also named cupcakes in honor of local city officials. Her chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream icing and a chocolate malted milk ball in the center was named, "Tall, Dark, & Handsome" after the local firemen.

The most famous cupcake was the mini-chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream and a malt ball on top. She named it "Short Dark & Handsome" after then attorney, Tony Baker, now Cherokee County Superior Court Judge. She catered his swearing-in ceremony and baked those as part of the buffet!

Diane's menu grew along with her business in Historic Downtown Canton. Soups, salads and sandwiches with wild, humorous names filled her menus. Over the years she opened and closed two storefronts where she daily served many local business owners, county and city officials, jurors and attorneys from the County Courthouse.

She's shipped boxes of her goodies to all 50 states, and to three countries. "I wanted to be a disciple to all the nations and the salt of the earth, but instead I'm the flour, sugar, and butter, too! She has closed her online bakery, too, and now just whips up clever culinary delicacies for family, close friends, and longtime customers.  

Meanwhile this joy-filled lady studied to become a paralegal and works for Bray & Johnson Law Firm in the Historic Downtown Loop. Her smiles radiate there, too!

In January, Diane turned 65 years old. She and a couple of her family members headed to Nevada to begin her birthday celebrations at a Chuck Wagon Cooking School! Yes!  The frosty temperature outside was below-zero! That's Diane, living life to the fullest! I begged for photos.

This is Diane, wearing snow pants for the sub-zero temps, with Kent Rollins, Chuck Wagon Cook. While she was cooking, her menfolk were in a cowboy hat-making class. (R)Those are Diane's jalapeno cheddar biscuits about to go in the oven.

This was just beginning of the week-long celebration for this birthday girl! Their schedule included dogsledding in minus 10-degree temperatures! But she said it warmed up to minus 3! 

            

The next day they had a Nordic Sauna scheduled; that's when the guests get in a sauna house for about 20 minutes at 190 degrees and then lowering their body temperature by jumping in icy water or sitting outside in the snow. Diane said she didn't sit in the snow, she just walked outside. :)

Then off to Minnesota for a family reunion at West Wind Resort, a place her cousin built lakeside to provide a full-service fishing vacation spot, including cabin and fish house rentals. And that's where Diane and her two traveling companions landed next, ice-fishing in a tiny house on an oh-so-frozen lake in Minnesota!

Here they are, "moving their house into the perfect spot," Diane told me. :)

Diane is always going to be cooking up delicious, new, and creative ways to enjoy life while she loves the people around her. She has a heart that likes to stir up wildly, hilarious adventures that end up inspiring others. She'll keep serving with that smile, too, that's just how she rolls.

A cheerful heart has a continual feast. *

Proverbs 15:15

*NIV commentary: "Continual feast: Life is as joyful and satisfying as the days of a festival."

*ESV commentary: "Feast is metaphor for joy."