RINCON — Leonard Wilson’s mostly dark world is interrupted daily by a loving ray of light.

The Pit Stop Country Buffet, located at 1113 N. Columbia Ave., aids the virtually blind Korean War veteran by delivering meals to him.

“They bring my breakfast to me every morning,” the 91-year-old Wilson said cheerfully Thursday morning. “I get treated like a king. I sure do.

“I was put in the right place at the right time.”

Wilson, 91, started enjoying The Pit Stop’s Southern cuisine six years ago. He used to drive to the restaurant in a golf cart. It was a short but dangerous trip because of his deteriorating vision.

“I’d park in the (Wiley’s Home Center) parking lot and walk across the street,” Wilson said. “(Former The Pit Stop owner) Dwayne (Ward) came to me one day and said, ‘You ain’t going to go back across there (alone). You get in my truck and I will carry you back over there. Those people on that road will kill you!’”

Ward then programmed his number into Wilson’s telephone.

“He said, ‘We will come get you, bring you here so that you can eat and then take you home,’” Wilson remembered. “I told him, ‘Wayne, that’s a lot of trouble. I’ll tell you what. If you will bring (the food) to me, I will appreciate it.’

“He said, ‘Yeah, no problem.’ They started bringing my meals and have been bringing them ever since.”

“If he doesn’t call us (with an order), we get worried,” added Sherrie Boswell, owner of The Pit Stop. “We start to think something is wrong.”

Wilson still eats lunch at The Pit Stop on days when he has a caretaker to drive him there. When he is forced to stay home, the Pit Stop delivers his lunch, plus enough food for supper.

“I wouldn’t have anything to eat without them,” Wilson said.

Wilson wasn’t concerned that his special deliveries would end after Ward sold the restaurant to Boswell and Bonnie Garrett in 2019.

“I worked here with Dwayne so (Mr. Wilson) never had to worry about not getting to eat,” Boswell said. “Dwayne has a good heart. It used to scare us when Mr. Wilson would walk across the street to get here. 

“Dwayne didn’t want him to get hurt trying to get food.”

Wilson joked that it might be worthy dying for some of The Pit Stop’s menu items.

“I like the seafood the best,” he said. “I never thought about eating anywhere else. I sure ain’t.”

Wilson is grateful for the tasty food and devoted service he receives from employees of The Pit Stop, including Boswell’s daughter, Cheyenne, and niece, Jamie Dodd. They have even given him a ride to his pharmacy

“I love them. You’d better know it. I love them all,” Wilson said.

The love is reciprocated.

“We just do whatever we can to help him,” Boswell said. “He is just a very sweet man. He’s very special to us.”