SPANISH FORT, Ala. — When Melinda Grimes isn’t busy helping with the nursery at Faith Family Fellowship Church and managing her husband’s business, she enjoys helping others.

Grimes and her husband, Barry, have lived in Daphne for 25 years and have two children: Johnny, 21, and Elizabeth, 20. The couple have owned Professional Maintenance Heating and Air in Spanish Fort for about 23 years.

“I truly married my best friend,” she said. “We have known each other forever.”

The couple’s families were friends with each other, which is what led them to meet when Melinda was 2 and Barry was born.

She has worked in the nursery at the church for about 20 years. “I just love those babies, and their parents.”

She enjoys making gift baskets to help others when she has free time. She has made hospital survival baskets, which weigh about 50 pounds and include snacks and microwaveable items. This way the visiting family members do not have to leave the hospital.

“Stuff in hospital snack machines are so expensive,” she said. “People tend to appreciate these a lot more.”

“They’re really fun to make.”

Along with making gift baskets for fun, she also enjoys volunteering her time for church functions. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005 she donated her time to help cook hot meals at a Daphne shelter.

She was also leader of a Mexico mission team at Faith Family Fellowship for several years.

“Anytime someone needs me I’m there.”

When she’s not cooking something for a church function she enjoys having “a hot meal on the table every night” at home.

She feeds her family as well as friends of her children. She loves to cook and bake everything from alfredo lasagna to steaks on the grill. “College kids love to come here and eat,” she said. 

“You name it, there isn’t a thing I haven’t cooked.”

The family loves pets. They share a new 3-month-old maltipoo — maltese, poodle mix — puppy named Franklin, an 11-year-old basset hound named Lightning and a cat named Kramer.

She said she is very excited about her new “fluffy puppy” Franklin who is white with tan ears. She said he will weigh about 6 pounds when fully grown.

“We’ve always taken in stray animals,” she said. “We’ve had everything … squirrels, you name it.”

Grimes said her favorite vacation spot is Guana Cay in the Abaco Islands, off the east-coast of Florida.

“If you want peace and quiet this is the place to go, she said. “It is the most wonderful place.”

She said the “poor person’s Bahamas” is all she can ask for. The family rents a beach house on the water where they watch  the boats go by; snorkels in the reef off the private dock; and enjoys only golf carts on the seven-mile long island.