Several years ago, I remember sitting down with Mayor Jones and talking about our mutual desire for a locally-owned microbrewery (or something like that) in our city. Like any leader, the Mayor had dreams and vision for this community, and finally, that wishful thinking will be turned into reality.

The Chive, Simply Good and Transparent Brewing Company will soon begin to take shape along Grandview’s 150 Highway corridor, just north of Gail’s Harley Davidson. With hopes to open in the spring of 2019, restaurant owners Michelle and Mark Brown and their son, brewery owner Nolan Brown, have recently submitted building plans to the City of Grandview and Jackson County.

The Chive, Simply Good Cafe and Market will be a true farm-to-table concept, with 100% of their rustic-American dishes made from scratch using local ingredients. From soups, salads, sandwiches, pizza and homemade breads and desserts, the menu will offer a full-range of fresh, in-season elements made with love.

Much of the fresh ingredients will come from Michelle’s own garden, while she will make every effort to source as many ingredients as possible from local natural farmers and producers. She refers to her menu as “inconspicuously healthy.”

“We will be focused on sustainability in all aspects of The Chive, from our choice of building materials to hand dryers in the bathrooms, to native plants in our landscaping, to using reusable plastic tubs for supplier deliveries to an electronic menu board to returnable market containers and to-go containers,” she said.

The restaurant will be counter-serve, but with a nicer feel. Guests can expect to eat using real silverware and stoneware.

In the same building, right next door, son Nolan will lead Transparent Brewing Company. With several years of home-brewing and working in breweries large and small, Nolan will focus on sessionable, balanced beers. Knowing of the popularity of brewing at home, Nolan will take an educational approach to serving guests in his brewery.

“We believe in being completely open with our patrons and would love to sit down and chat about our processes and techniques,” he said. “We hope that every customer will leave our establishment having learned something new and gaining a deeper passion for beer.”

My son and I recently attended a tasting at the Browns’ home in Oak Grove. We tried an item from the under 18 menu, had incredible French onion soup, homemade soda and a broccoli chicken panini. I even tried a few of Nolan’s brews. Everything we had was fresh and delicious, and made us both eager for the side-by-side establishments to open next year.

Hours for the cafe will likely be daily until around 7 p.m., with the brewery to remain open later (except on Sundays). To follow their building and opening plans, both companies can be found on Facebook.

I have always loved old family photographs. My parents have a collection of my ancestors lining their staircase walls, and over the years, I have asked Mom to tell me the stories of the people in the pictures. Some she knows, others she doesn’t, but it’s always fascinated me to see myself or my son in those great-great-great relatives.

Even other people’s distant memories through photos pique my interest. When I visit friends’ houses, I love to see frames with grandparents long passed, or black and white images showing lineage from generations ago.

Recently, a friend who works for the Grandview Police Department sent me an email. Three years ago or so, she came across a photo in the parking lot at City Hall. Knowing it must belong to someone who might miss it, she picked it up. Asking around the police station, other city departments, and the Grandview Historical Society, she came up short.

Bob’s photo belongs to someone. The inscription, May the best of luck always come your way, indicates that whomever was in possession of this portrait from 1932 might be missing this charm. Bob is handsome, dressed and styled in a dapper way, and appears to have his whole life ahead of him.

Whatever happened to Bob? Did he join the military? Did he fight in any wars? Did he end up getting married, and having a family? Bob has likely passed away by now, but I’m certain someone out there misses him and his kind eyes and slight smirk of a smile.

Bob has a home somewhere, and I’m not convinced it’s on the desk of my friend who works at the police station. This is what I love about my job: telling the stories of our community, even the stories that I may know nothing about other than a short inscription in the bottom corner of a photograph from 1932. I do hope that Bob received some of that luck that he wished upon whomever he gave this photo to. And I hope we can find who he belongs to.

If you know anything about Bob, please email me at mwilson@jcadvocate.com, or call 816-761-6200. I’d love to be able to tell his story of luck, life and love.

A few weeks ago, my son Michael and I talked about what he would do if an active shooter entered his school. He’s practiced this, they’ve had drills and he seems to know what he’s supposed to do and how he’s supposed to react.

I pray to God that he never has to experience that, but I’m also not naive enough to believe it could never happen here. Tragedy can strike anywhere, at anytime, and as parents, we can only hope that our children will know how to best respond when faced with danger. Where will he go, will he try and fight, what happens if his teacher is injured?

These are the conversations that I, as a parent of an incredibly smart, handsome, compassionate kid, must have with my 12-year-old. Every day, he gets on the bus, and I almost have to hold my breath until he steps off of it at the end of the day. Every day, I have to worry whether or not he finished his homework, or if someone says something mean to him that sets him over the edge, or, God forbid, a gunman enters his school.

We don’t want to think about these awful tragedies happening in our own communities; yet time and again, we are forced to. I am forced to talk to my pre-teen son about things that I’m not even sure I fully comprehend.

I’m hopeful that something like what happened in Florida won’t happen in our community. When I watched the news coverage on television directly following the events on Valentine’s Day, I pictured my son, I pictured his friends, and I pictured his school.

My son is my whole world. Every day that he has been in it has been an indescribable blessing. I can’t imagine a world where he does not grow up, where he does not become someone who truly makes a difference in the lives of everyone around him. He used to always say he wanted to be a police officer who fights bad guys, but now he’s not so sure that’s what he wants to do. I can’t say I blame him.

The news stories haunt me as a parent. How easily that could have been here is in the back of my mind each and every day. Parkland may be in Florida, and I may be in Missouri, but that is our community, that’s our school, those are our kids. And I’m not okay with it.