Surprise! </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 9:00 PM on Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Surprise!

Two sisters in Oklahoma cook up trip to Alaska, catching third sister, mother off guard at work

By McKibben Jackinsky
Staff writer

When Jackie Johnson came to Homer to open Boardwalk Bakery earlier this year, she was a long way from her Oklahoma family -- mom Doris Simpson and sisters Kathy Hamrick and Robin Petschel.

Frequent phone calls helped. So did having her mom fly up to help get the business off the ground. Saturday it got even better when Johnson's sisters arrived on her doorstep.

"We lost our daddy last summer and I wanted Mom to come up so she'd have something to do," Johnson said. "She's been here helping me."

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky

Boardwalk Bakery owner Jackie Johnson, left, and her mom, Doris Simpson, second from right, get a surprise visit from family members Kathy Hamrick, second from left, and Robin Petschel, right, of Oklahoma City.

The two have been giving almost daily phone reports to Hamrick and Petschel on "how beautiful Homer is and what a great time we're having," Johnson said.

The four women are known for their closeness. After hearing Petschel talk about the reports she was getting from Homer, her boss, Horace Phillips of Universal Insurance Agency in Oklahoma City, surprised her with a ticket to Homer.

"He's fished in Ketchikan and kept saying, 'You've got to go up there,'" Petschel said of her employer's encouragement to see Alaska.

When Hamrick mentioned to her boss -- Kent Bradford of the Bradford-Irwin Insurance Agency, also of Oklahoma City -- that Petschel was planning a trip to Homer, she was similarly given an offer she couldn't refuse: a paid ticket to Homer.

Having discreetly found out what time Johnson and Simpson began their workday -- 6:30 a.m. -- and with the help of a local taxi driver, Hamrick and Petschel went directly to the bakery after their flight arrived at 7:10 a.m. Saturday morning.

"They just walked in the door," Johnson said of the early morning surprise. "It was awesome."

Caught up in the excitement, a group of visitors that happened to be in the bakery that morning took photos of the reunion. Equally excited, Bradford called from Oklahoma.

"Did you pull it off?" he asked Petschel, wondering if the family closeness would sabotage the secret.

"Yes, we pulled it off," Petschel reported.

Hamrick and Petschel will be in Homer through the week, working beside Johnson and Simpson and hoping for a glimpse of the sea otters that frequently swim past the bakery's Spit location. Simpson will stay in Homer to help Johnson until the bakery closes on Labor Day.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky.@homernews.com.