A batch of oatmeal raisin cookies turned into something much bigger for one new coffee shop in Damascus.
The Coffee Thief opened last month, co-owned by all four members of the Martin family, who said they wanted to build a store that could become a community hub.
“We have received an outpouring of support. Seriously, this community is full of so much love and generosity. The local community is incredible, but the tourists have embraced us in the most amazing way,” K.T. Martin said.
Among those tourists were Josh and Amanda Robertson, who were in town during the shop’s opening weekend.
“It’s really funny, they both don’t really like coffee at all,” K.T. said.
“I don’t like coffee at all,” Josh said.
“Yeah, neither of us like coffee,” Amanda added.
The Robertsons said they still wanted to support the business after seeing its opening announcement on Facebook.
“I saw on Facebook the day they were opening and they advertised cookies and we went in there to get cookies and I fell in love with their oatmeal raisin cookies,” Josh said.
When the couple returned to the house where they were staying, Josh got an email with medical results.
“That’s when I had my results emailed to me,” he said.
It was stage 3 testicular cancer, his second bout with the disease.
After they returned home, Amanda emailed the Martins to ask if they could ship some of the oatmeal raisin cookies to comfort Josh.
“We both were like, shipping it? No, no, let’s go deliver it,” Brandon Martin said.
The Martins then made a 6-hour round trip to surprise Josh with the cookies, a visit documented on The Coffee Thief’s Facebook page.
“That was the biggest surprise of my life,” Josh said.
“It truly meant the world to me that someone outside of my little personal orb cared and cared enough to come and see me and bring me cookies. To you, or to anyone else, it’s a cookie but to me, it was special,” Josh said.
Read more from WJLA.
