North Carolina restaurant fulfills woman’s dying wish

Raven Payne

Updated: Mar 30, 2024 / 10:21 PM CDT

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (WAVY) — It’s an act of kindness that cleared away a cloud of grief, crossing state lines. A North Carolina restaurant owner drove six hours to deliver what ended up being the last meal for a woman on her death bed.

Heather Bowers was a loving wife, mother of two, and devoted friend.

Her best friend, Mary Simmons, said Bowers was at the end of her life after a long battle with cancer.

“Right out of the gate it was Stage 4,” Simmons said. “What she went through in three-and-a-half-years would’ve brought down the strongest man.”

She went on to say the chemotherapy, devastatingly, worked a little too well. As it was killing the tumor, it was destroying the rest of Bowers’ cells.

On her deathbed, Bowers had one last wish: a pork plate from Outer Banks restaurant Mama Kwans.

But Simmons wondered how they could make it happen. After all, they lived six hours away in West Virginia.

“I knew it was a long shot, and she calls me by about 5 and she said Kevin already has it packed up,” Simmons said, referring to Mama Kwans owner Kevin Cherry. “He’s in the car and he’s on his way there. I said, ‘What?’ And she said he’s on his way to the house.”

Cherry said he didn’t think twice before making the long drive for a customer in need, saying anyone in his position would’ve done the same thing.

But it was emotionally hard. “About halfway up, I had to turn the radio off and had to talk to myself, saying, ‘You can’t walk in here like this,'” Cherry said. “You’ve got to walk in with a little bit of sunshine from the Outer Banks.”

He made it, but tragically, Bowers died the very next night.

Simmons said what Cherry and his staff did for her friend of 30 years showed her there are still genuine, kind people in this world.

Cherry said he plans to make a $1,000 donation to the West Virginia hospice care center that took care of Bowers during her final moments.

“I just think maybe, if people see that kind of kindness, it’ll start spreading,” Simmons said. “That’s the hope. He made her smile — one of the final smiles of her life.”