A local burritos restaurant, Burritos To Go, looks like a normal small business at first sight; however, it has several small features and secrets that concludes to a heartwarming story.

It all starts with the owner and founder, Cindy Lamontagne. She started the business when she moved to Broomfield from Minnesota with goals of creating a family-owned business. “I wanted to buy a business that my family and I could work at together, be together, and spend time together,” she said.

The small property is located close to Broomfield High School, which worked perfectly for Cindy. This was because her children were in attendance at the high school.

After working as a substitute teacher and a paraeducator for special needs students, she would hurry back to her restaurant to work and support her family.

Cindy has two sons and they both have struggled with brain cancer. Her first son was diagnosed with two types of cancer shortly after he was born, and one of them was brain cancer. He was never supposed to survive; however, he ended up beating cancer, and that brought hope and prosperity to Cindy and her family.

In the past few years, her second son was not feeling well and ended up being diagnosed with brain cancer and a brain tumor. He is still fighting up to this day, tragically having to go through chemotherapy regularly. Cindy keeps a tip jar and everything that goes into there helps with the funding of his chemotherapy.

To support her family Cindy works a 5 am to 5 pm schedule, seven days a week, an astonishing 72 hours. However, this diligent lifestyle is nothing new to Cindy as she has been performing her job for 15+ years. Cindy said that the workload is out of happiness for her: “When you find a job that you love, you want to put out your effort, you want to give it everything you got, and I love this place. Being with the kids [mostly high school kids]… talking to kids about their problems… I just love it.”

In her restaurant, there are countless pictures of past students that she had a personal relationship with before they went off to the next step in their lives. Cindy doesn’t hesitate to comfort a student, whether it is talking to them about their day, helping them with their problem, or giving them a free burrito. In doing this, she has made several connections with young adults that come by and stop for a burrito.

Burritos to Go has gone through three robberies. The worst robbery of the three to Cindy was the most recent, which took place this past summer. “The reason why that [robbery] was the worst one was because I knew the kid. I helped him out with what he was going through, then he came and stabbed me in the back. The sense of betrayal left me speechless,” she said.

In the end, if you ever want a really good burrito, or a really good friend, Burritos to Go would be the perfect destination for you.