CARY, N.C. —  A Cary business owner is finding success, despite a recent tragedy.

Em Smock and her husband Steve had just opened a new bakery in Cary when their lives were turned upside down. Steve Smock suffered a stroke. 

“Ever since the community heard about Steve’s stroke, it’s just been absolutely bonkers,” Em Smock said.

According to her, business has been surprisingly good since the night that changed her and her family’s lives.

“He (Steve) woke up in the middle of the night, and when he came back into our room, he kinda slammed the door a little bit. I said what’s wrong, and he started stumbling to his bed,” Smock said.

That was on May 5. Steve Smock was rushed to Wake Med, where he was taken into immediate surgery.

“Halfway through the surgery, the doctor called me, and she said ‘I cannot restore blood flow to the right side of his brain; he is going to be paralyzed permanently on the left side of his body,’” Smock said.

Steve had just quit his job as a mechanic and was going to be the numbers guy for his wife’s new bakery.

One week after the café opened, he suffered six heart attacks, countless seizures, and a massive stroke.

Now, he spends every day in the hospital while his wife works to make up for his absence.

“These are our orders just for the next couple of days,” Smock said, pointing to dozens of scones and cupcakes.

Fortunately, the community has helped out since word of her family’s story got out on social media.

While the bakery gives her a place to escape from her husband’s tragedy, the ride to the hospital gives her time to think only about her husband.

“It’s a lot to think about; there’s also the cause of the stroke still up in the air. They think it’s a genetic condition,” Em Smock explained.

A lot of questions remain, but Em Smock remains hopeful. Every time she visits, she says, there’s one more thing to be grateful for.

On Memorial Day weekend, their kids finally got to visit Steve Smock at the hospital.

“He shouldn’t be alive, and he is, he shouldn’t be talking, and he is, so I just try to hold on to the little rays of hope we see along the way,” Smock said.