Autumn Mummey and Linda Alvis met when Autumn’s husband was giving baseball hitting lessons to Linda’s son. They quickly bonded over the many things they had in common, including the community where they lived and the career paths they had chosen. Both were graduates of UAB’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, and soon found themselves working in the same urgent care clinic.

Whenever they worked a shift together at the clinic, Autumn and Linda routinely shared jokes with one another, as friends and coworkers often do. On one occasion, they joked that they should go into business together and open their own urgent care practice. It didn’t remain a joke for long.

“Within a few weeks of saying that, we were looking at locations to be home to our practice,” Autumn laughs. “It just seemed right. We’d have the autonomy of having our own place, we’d get to do what we love to do, and we’d get to work together all the time.”

The pair found their perfect location in a building on Highway 257 in Curry that had once been home to another urgent care practice. With the building already poised to be a medical clinic and with the growing need for a healthcare provider in the area, the decision to call this location home to their business was incredibly easy.

Autumn and Linda opened the doors to Smith Lake Family Care in November 2020. Since then, the practice has served over 5,000 patients from the communities surrounding Smith Lake and other areas of Walker County. Their biggest hope for the practice is to continue to be a trusted destination for the urgent care and primary care needs of the community.

“The patients and the community have been awesome and so receptive to having us in the area. They have thanked us for making healthcare more accessible to them, and that is incredibly rewarding,” Autumn says. 

Each day, Autumn, Linda, and their dedicated team of nurses and support staff provide quality care to patients in need. At the end of the day, you can find the two behind their desks, wrapping up the day’s tasks and sharing a smile, knowing they are fortunate to do what they love to do. 78

Smith Lake Family Care is located at 6610 Curry Highway in Jasper and is open to serve patients’ urgent and primary healthcare needs from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.