“I’m going on 10 years here this year. And I’m fighting to the end.”

—  Sandi Cox, owner of Sandi's Bar and Grill in Dayton

Sandi’s Bar and Grill, just outside of Ottawa, reopened Wednesday after several months of re-openings, closings and obstacles. And the business was closed again Friday unexpectedly after its owner was hospitalized.

Every restaurant in La Salle County has its story on how it’s surviving the pandemic but Sandi Cox experienced enough challenges to fill a book; from her basement flooding in December 2019, the shutdown a year ago from the pandemic and her freezers going down to some personal health issues.

Through it all, she’s remained committed to staying open for her customers, operating in the small village of Dayton.

“I’m going on 10 years here this year,” Cox said of her bar and grill at 3112 E. 1961st Road. “And I’m fighting to the end.”

The community doesn’t want to see her close, either. Her friend Brenda Miller set up a GoFundMe where more than $3,225 was raised to help keep Sandi’s in Dayton. Cox was thankful.

“My heart was so full,” Cox said in an interview last week. “I was overwhelmed with the love everyone showed me.”

Cox runs the restaurant with her husband, Billy, and her manager, Ashley Christopher. She also hired four people from Friendship Village in Ottawa.

After everything she’s been through, Cox was excited to re-open last week with in-person dining for the first time since the initial COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and the business had “two amazing days,” until Cox was hospitalized Friday, forcing the bar and grill to close once again.

This isn’t Cox’s first challenge, however.

The establishment’s basement flooded in December 2019, before the pandemic. She reopened Jan. 2, 2020, with everything operational and going well.

“The money was coming back and everything looked good,” Cox said. “Then March 15 came. We all got shut down.”

Cox still was trying to recover from her December shutdown when the pandemic started and she faced a reality many restaurant owners faced when the forced-shutdowns began: Just because the restaurant is closed doesn’t mean the bills go away.

“You know, we don’t make a lot of money,” Cox said, in reference to restaurant owners as a whole. “The business makes a lot of money, so everything that comes in goes right back out. You have to be really good with your money, especially if it’s your only job.”

The March 15 shutdown mandate halted everything for Cox as it did for other businesses and she didn’t have things grants to fall back on.

Cox qualified for the PPP loans but she said she didn’t have the help that the incorporated Ottawa businesses had from the city: The county didn’t offer the same resources.

“(Ottawa Mayor) Dan Aussem busted his butt,” Cox said. “I look and see all these businesses like Shakers that got $70,000 and all these others that got $30,000 because the city helped them through the process.”

Many cities in the region, such as Ottawa, have been helping their businesses by authorizing motions of support for Illinois Downstate Small Business Stabilization grants that have been used to provide funds to help businesses fend off the economic effects of the virus.

This led her to rely on banks, which became an ordeal for Cox as she tried to secure the funding to keep her business afloat when she wasn’t actually able to open.

“It wasn’t like I was a failing business coming in and asking for help; I’m a successful business that just needs help to get through a rough patch,” Cox said. “Then I’m finding out that people can get deferred payments, so I go to my bank and ask about that.”

Cox said Dec. 1 was the first late payment she’s ever made and collections called her on Dec. 22.

Despite her challenges, she remained community-minded, making food every day for a week and delivering it to all her friends in Dayton, everyone who was struggling and anyone who needed it.

Cox tried reopening in April for carryout. She came into work one day, however, and her walk-in freezers were down. Cox lost all of the food.

“I just walked in, like, ‘Are you serious?’” Cox said. “I just cried. The walk-ins go down. We had the flood in December, then we had the shutdown in March. Then I re-open and things are going great. Then the walk-ins go down.”

Cox said at that point it was either look into getting more loans or selling — and when she went to the bank, all she could get was a construction loan. Cox used that money to rebuild the kitchen and prepare the outdoors for half-capacity dining.

“I had a process because I’m one that follows rules,” Cox said. “Everyone has the right to their own beliefs on the virus but because I have lupus and Hashimoto’s, and a mother whose 88 years old, everything was scary.”

Cox attempted to open in June but struggled to get half of her employees to return: They either couldn’t come back because they found new jobs or because of unemployment or for any number of reasons. Instead of reopening for indoor dining, Cox kept up with carryout.

“I got my butt kicked with carryouts because I get so many orders and I’m the only cook,” Cox said. “There were only four of us working and we busted our butts from October until January.”

She stayed open through January but then she fell ill again. It wasn’t her first time getting so sick she couldn’t open the store.

“I have three daughters, and two are nurses and they told me I needed to go to the hospital,” Cox said. “I ended up there for seven days and I still have to be careful.”

Cox, as mentioned prior, has lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes antibodies to attack organs and tissues. Cox didn’t want to break the rules to reopen for indoor dining early.

“People can put the pandemic in any context they want, but how I look at it is there’s just no way the United States and every country in the entire world shut down because of something that was just a stupid flu,” Cox said. “They shut down because something serious was happening.”

Cox said she went back into America’s history to look at the 1918 Spanish Flu where people wore masks and anyone that was defiant of wearing a mask was considered a bad person.

“We went through this same thing back then and there just weren’t as many angry people,” Cox said. “They didn’t have social media to make them angry, but you know what? If we got through it 100 years ago, we can get through it now. It’s not about whether or not you like (Gov. JB Pritzker).”

While her hospitalization is another setback, Cox said she was happy to re-open the restaurant and see her customers return. Her commitment remains strong.

“I know I’m not alone,” Cox said. “And I’m sad for all of us that are going through this hard time. And I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your love and support.”