TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — Every meal served at Jojo's Italian Diner in Tarpon Springs is made from scratch by "Jojo" herself. So when the only chef and restaurant owner had a life-threatening medical emergency earlier this month, the restaurant had to close.
It has been a terrifying experience for Jojo, who said she and her husband poured everything into building the business.
"We had a food truck. We sold it to do this. We sold our jewelry, sold everything," Jojo recalled.
After four decades of working in other people's restaurants, she and her husband Anthony opened "Jojo's Italian Diner" in May 2020.
Recalling how they decided on a name, Anthony said, "She's the love of my life," Anthony said. "When we opened it up she said, 'oh you can put 'Anthony' up' and I said no, I want the world to see Jojo, my baby."
Their love and family are at the foundation of the restaurant's success. Several of Jojo and Anthony's six kids work alongside them.
"If you look around there are pictures on the wall of all of our customers who come here, so we can actually make them part of the family," Anthony said.
But now, its normally bustling dining rooms are quiet, and the restaurant's doors are closed indefinitely, as Jojo recovers from a near-fatal case of sepsis caused by kidney stones.
During her eight days in the hospital, she worried about losing business and employees.
"I don't want to lose our family over this either, you know, because what if they like their [temporary] job," Jojo said. "It's me who can sink or swim everybody and that's a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure."
But in the past week, Jojo has learned a whole community wants to help lift that weight off her shoulders.
Without her knowing, her son created a GoFundMe page to support her and the business. Thousands of dollars were raised in just a few days.
"It's encouraging because there are days you want to give up, we all feel that way, and then you read things like this and it's like, you do matter, you do matter," Jojo said. "A 7-year-old girl wants to send a card because it's her favorite restaurant. It's when you do matter."
Jojo is still receiving daily treatment at the hospital but hopes to reopen the restaurant in the coming weeks.