The broken lock that June morning made Sandra Rivers sick to her stomach. She knew it wouldn’t be good after raising the gate on her business.

“Everything was gone," Rivers said.

The cappuccino machine and convection oven, the cash register and fryer, the cake display case and refrigerators for food and soft beverages.

Rivers passed out in front of the café she was going to open in September at 2 Treat Place, a narrow downtown Newark street between Branford Place and William Street near Teachers Village.

They took everything but the kitchen sink. Actually, they made off with one of those, too. And, they stole things they didn’t need: two American Sign Language clocks, sign language cards and picture frames with words that people could use to practice sign language. They had no conscience about who it would serve, even though the name of the business is plastered on the window.

Deaf’s Delight Café.

Believed to be first of its kind in the state, the eatery of light fare – sandwiches, tea, coffee - was going to be the social spot for the deaf community and hard of hearing in Newark and beyond.

The deaf and hard of hearing is estimated to be 12,000 in Newark and 720,000 statewide. Rivers said this population needs a place to hang after work just like those of us who can hear.

The theft, which is still under investigation by Newark police, crushed Rivers financially. She lost her life savings, about $90,000 that she accumulated in 15 years as a retail manager.

How could this happen? Rivers signed a two-year lease in March, then heard about a great deal on appliances at a store going out of business. She stored her newly-bought equipment at the café and scheduled an appointment a week later in June with an insurance agent.

The meeting to secure her investment never happened. Her stuff was gone. Rivers, whose hearing is declining, was on Facebook Live in tears, telling the deaf community what happened as she walked through her place that was still under construction.

Emotionally, she was devastated. The business was a tribute to her parents, the late Jean Thomas and Robert Dandridge. Her mother was deaf. Her father was mute, meaning he was deaf and couldn’t speak. They died 11 years ago, having never enjoyed social amenities many take for granted.

Sandra Rivers, the owner of Deaf's Delight Cafe in Newark, was set to open in September until the business was robbed of all of its appliances.(Barry Carter NJ | Advance Media)

At restaurants, Rivers said her mother was served embarrassment and humiliation. The hosts didn’t have patience, urging her to write down her thoughts when they couldn’t understand that all she wanted was to be seated for a meal with her five daughters. Rivers, now 48, remembers being a child seeing patrons laughing, snickering under their breath, calling her mother names.

“She would just grab us, and we wouldn’t eat," Rivers said. “Watching my parents struggle in a world that wasn’t built for them was kind of hard."

This café represents the future, one the deaf community in Newark eagerly anticipated when they learned what Rivers was doing. They hurt for Rivers, knowing the ground she was breaking.

“She tried so hard to do this for the deaf community," said Kent Williams, a Newark resident who is deaf and hard of hearing. “It took a lot of heart for her to do something like that."

In New Jersey, there’s nowhere for the deaf community to gather unless someone sponsors a social event like Rivers recently did in September.

The café was designed to give the deaf community a space to congregate and interact with people who can hear. Rivers was hiring deaf and hearing employees fluent in sign language, so there would always be somebody to talk the deaf community. She had plans for open mic night with deaf people signing poetry and songs.

Rivers was working on a deaf television network to provide programming for the deaf community. There would be deaf news, weather, and sports.

“They can have fellowship, they can have their own sip and paint parties, their movies in their own language," Rivers said. “I wanted them to walk in and feel like ‘wow,’ this is for us.'”

The employment piece, however, is significant since many struggle to find work and are on a fixed income. Statistics for deaf people in New Jersey’s workforce mirror percentage rates nationally, according to the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes. In 2017, approximately 43% of deaf people worked compared to 79% people with hearing. Nationally, 53% of deaf people were working compared to 75.8% with hearing people.

Thyson Halley, an active Newark advocate who is deaf and hard of hearing, said the café would be a tourist attraction, drawing sign language students, interpreters from area colleges and the curious public. The idea reminds him of the Starbucks Signing Store in Washington, D.C., where employees are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). The first of its kind, that store is down the street from Galludet University, a bilingual (English and ASL) institution for Deaf and hard of hearing students.

In San Francisco, there’s a deaf pizzeria and its owners will be opening another one this spring in proximity of Galludet. Around the world there are deaf cafés in France and Granda, Nicaragua.

“People are going to come to a deaf café," Halley said. “Everybody was looking forward to it."

This was Rivers’ life dream. She sacrificed, leaving her job so she could to commit to finding a location full-time. The price was steep. She got behind on her mortgage and eventually lost her home in East Orange and is now living with a relative.

Rivers hasn’t given up, even though there’s no update from Newark police. She has a page on GoFundme. A fundraiser was held at the business last weekend. Rivers explained her predicament, and that she had no insurance.

All she had left were hardwood floors and tiles in boxes. They swiped her mop and broom, too.

The deaf community came out to support Rivers, raising $12,000 towards the $35,000 she needs to open. Just under $2,000 was in cash; the rest a pledge for equipment.

Considering her loss, Rivers was able to smile Wednesday, signing the emotion in her heart.

“I love you."

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Barry Carter may be reached at bcarter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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