05/15/2026
Sometimes, burgers and beers turn into hard conversations and tears—
This is one of those times. It’s no secret that the economy has been getting worse at a very rapid speed; everyone’s costs are up, jobs are ending, belts are tightening, sales are dwindling, that being said, despite us trying to manage our expenses as much as possible, it isn’t enough.
Regarding payment—our employees livelihoods have always been a priority for us. We have also been transparent with our employees with bad news, and continue to do what we can to lessen impact on them. We did not want to blindside our staff seeing announcements on media before they heard anything from us directly.
Kelly and I have always been transparent with our lives. Yes, we are out of town. No, we are not on vacation. We are celebrating our only daughter’s graduation. We are only able to be here by the answering of prayers through the hearts of our friends. All of our adult children show the very best of ourselves and we are honored to watch who they are becoming. That being said, we were attempting to make the focus of this day on them—this is the first time they’ve all been together in four years. We did not want to hamper their time together by such heartbreaking truths in our family.
Those truths are:
Hurricane Helene tried her best to take us out; we persevered.
Our inexperience almost drown us; we swam anyway.
Emergency surgery on Christmas Eve and an extended ICU stay terrified us; we were brave.
Four Hundred cuts to government contracts out of the blue happened and the income we used to support RPGE was gone; we worked harder than ever before.
**The Most Important Truth**
Our first and foremost mission in life has been and will always be Service above Self.
That being said, we have lived lives so that when people that do not know us speak unwell of us, those that do know us and know where our hearts and minds will know the truth about our character.
When we return, there will be time for more tears and a few more beers. Hopefully, there will lots of hugs and memories that will outlive our time in this building.
Always more than Burgers & Fries,
The O’Neals
🍔🍟💔
