When first setting foot inside Purdy’s Coffee Company, a visitor is overwhelmed by the scent of fresh coffee. But gratification will have to wait. People stand in line to get a cup of Purdy's. Just like Starbucks, but more homey, more genuinely friendly. This is a family business, owned and operated by Robert and Kristin Purdy on Main Street in downtown Richmond. On this bright October day, a toddler runs out from behind a counter and grabs a customer’s leg. Following her is a teenaged girl, who quickly picks up the child and takes her back behind the counter. The teen, Lydia Purdy, 18, is Robert's adoptive sister. She is adjusting to her new home in Richmond after living overseas for much of her young life. She helps out in the coffee shop, babysits, and works at the family's embroidery shop located nearby on Main Street. Work seems to bind her family together. Robert's father, a Vietnam veteran, adopted Lydia and four of her siblings from Vietnam. She was 5 years hold when he brought them home to join his family in Texas. When she was in grade school, her father took a job in Hong Kong working for an airline company. She joined him in Hong Kong and lived there until finishing high school. Following graduation, she moved back to the United States to live with her older brother Robert in Richmond. “Moving back and forth was tough because when I lived in Texas I had eight siblings. When I lived in Hong Kong, I was an only child. Now that I’m back in America, I don’t have too many friends in Richmond,” says Lydia. But she's in the process of making new friends at work and at Madison Community Church. She's in a church study group and Cru, an evangelical Christian organization. She wants to attend Eastern Kentucky University next year to major in public relations.
Work, pray, play
