Taking their lives back — one cup of coffee at a time

NORWALK — Three Norwalk women have opened up a mobile coffee company, Wild & Free Coffee Co. Their business currently has a website — wildandfreecoffeeco.com, which offers both coffee and merchandise — and they hope to be taking their vintage mobile trailer to local events this spring or summer. It's like a food truck but specializes in coffee. The women — Becky Drennen, Jenn Waller and Kayla Dawson — are all related, sort of. Drennen's husband Matt is Waller's brother; Dawson is Matt's ex-wife. "Our mission is to take back our lives. Let's learn to love each other, our planet, and the life we're living," according to its website. "Wild & Free Coffee shop offers a unique experience using high-quality products we are proud of," the website states. "The story of us starts a long time ago, and it hasn't been an easy road. Like many we know, there have been many mountains and valleys to climb. Life throws us all kinds of challenges. Some big, some small, some incomprehensible. Through it all, we chose love and have tried to pass this on to our children." It continued: "Reconciliation between families after divorce and co-parenting. Pushing for the best amongst lots of hard in between and accepting love from everyone during the tragedy of losing the life of Matt & Becky's 10-year-old son Micaiah." Micaiah tragically died in a house fire in May 2021. "In response to our tragedy, we also received nothing but love from our community," the website state. "Family, friends and strangers alike all joined together to support and love us. As we have grieved and assessed everything in our lives one simple fact stood out! Life is too short and unpredictable to not live life to its fullest." Dawson said the business gives the women something positive to focus on. "It's about choosing to see the good, choosing to have a good attitude, even when you don't want to, because it's hard because things have been hard," Dawson said. "But I think we can all be a testimony that you can still make something good and still find joy and make good choices every day and choose to be happy." Drennen said the business has taken longer to get off the ground than the three women had planned. The women realize that to some their relationships seem odd. "We certainly have become closer in the last two years," Drennen said. "We're proud of our family dynamic. We do get some razzing from people, occasionally, because they just don't understand. It's almost sad to me how different people think this is, but it should be the other way around." Waller says the coffee they sell is sort of a symbol of how they live their lives. "That was how Micaiah lived," she said. "It is kind of like our mission to just spread that entire vibe of life stemming from the good choices that you make like the cup of coffee that you are drinking."