SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Cindy Renkert may not care for snakes, but she still loves the Delta and her job at Five Rivers Delta Resource Center on the Mobile Bay Causeway where she works in the gift shop.

“You can’t have a bad day working here — it’s absolutely beautiful,” she said.

Despite being diagnosed a few weeks ago with Multiple Sclerosis, Renkert has a positive attitude. She is learning about the disease and hopes to either start a M.S. support group or to join one in the area.

“It hits everyone differently and has different symptoms, and is hard to diagnose,” she said.

She said she has been told by area residents that there are a few people in the area who have M.S.

The disease is most prevalent in women and people from the northern part of the country, she said.

Renkert was born in Wheeling, W.V., which is near the Ohio River. After joining the Army at 17, she was stationed in Germany for three years. She updated records of American prisoners in Germany.

When she returned to the United States, she moved to Seattle, Wa. and lived there for 20 years.

While living in Seattle, she went to work for a alarm system company. There, she met her future husband on the job when she sold him an alarm for his home. Her husband is Bruce Renkert, city building official for Spanish Fort.

They will be celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary this year. She is also anticipating the birth of a fourth grandchild, she said.

After moving to the Eastern Shore, she decided to open a drive-up coffee shop and called it “The Daily Grind,” which she managed for five years.

“When we moved here, we couldn’t find an expresso that we were used to, so we opened a coffee shop,” she said.

Then, they bought a second shop in Bay Minette. They even took their coffee beans to Pascagoula to have them roasted.

She said that her and husband were “pioneers” in the coffee trade here, as they had to educate some customers on coffee terms, such as “latte” instead of “laddie.”

Renkert was so impressed with Five Rivers that she volunteered to help them set up the gift shop, which has now turned into a full-time job. Her job is always interesting, she said, because of the special events and the people she meets on a daily basis, from all walks of life.

“The locals and everybody seems to be so proud of [Five Rivers],” she said.

Tourists from countries such as Germany and England have stopped in, she said. She delights in seeing peoples’ faces when they see the facility for the first time.

“They see how our tax dollars are doing something good,” she said.

One big perk is she gets a firsthand education on the environment and wildlife in the area. She said she is amazed by the diversity, from bugs and alligators to baby turtles.