American dream became a nightmare

But at Stalex Pizza, this is the second attempt at the American dream. The first version died a year and a half ago.

On the November morning her husband was shot and killed during a robbery, Yasime Manavoglu, 39, had dropped off one of their three children at school and was spending the morning with a friend. Her husband, Mumin Manavoglu, 47, had opened Stalex Pizza for breakfast when a man entered with a 9mm pistol and demanded money. An employee handed him some bills from the cash register.

Mumin followed the man outside and tried to tackle him. The man pulled his gun and fired, missing Mumin but causing him to fall. Mumin continued the pursuit.

Then the man stopped, turned, and shot him in the head.

The robber got away with $80.

On Friday, a Dorchester teen, Gary Johnson, 19, was convicted in the murder of Mumin and sentenced to man datory life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Yasime Manavoglu took over the restaurant after her husband's death. She answers the phone, does some cooking, rings the register, and spends most of her life behind the counter - sometimes nearly 100 hours a week. She misses being at home raising her children: daughters, Dilruba, 7, and Muberra, 5, and son, Yekta, 3.

"What is a day off? I forget what that means," she jokes between phone orders and making change for customers.

Yasime had no business training and had never worked in a restaurant.

"I was just staying at home with the kids, going out for the shopping or whatever I need. He used to take care of everything," she said.

Manavoglu is out the door of her Brockton home about 6 a.m., seven days a week, to get ready for the breakfast crowd. She closes at 11 p.m. The long hours have taken a physical toll, but she maintains a youthful spirit, laughing and joking with her employees. She scurries from the front to the back, keeping the cooks and drivers in check and chatting with regular customers, many of whom were her husband's customers.

"It is hard," she said.

Mumin had emigrated to the United States from Turkey in the late 1980s and got by washing dishes and doing prep work at several restaurants. Distressed about being single in his 30s, he confided in a fellow Turk who happened to have a single cousin back home in Turkey.

Mumin and Yasime met in Turkey, fell in love, and got married. She moved here in 2000, and both obtained US citizenship.

Mumin and some fellow restaurant workers purchased Stalex in 2004.

"He made the best damn 'works' pizza there is," said regular customer Sherry Lewis, 41. "He was so sweet.

"I was very upset - I remember that day, plain as day," she said recalling his death. "It was terrible. It was senseless."

Lewis and Manavoglu embraced as Lewis shouted out, "and the food's just as good now."

"She's tougher, and cleaner," joked Mehmet Aktas, 26, a cook who has worked for both Manavoglus. Aktas said Manavoglu runs the shop much as her husband did. That made her smile.

Most of Manavoglu's family is still in Turkey but she has a sister here who baby-sits for her while she is at the restaurant. The children are beginning to forget what their father looked like, said Manavoglu, who has posted photos all over her home and restaurant. The oldest, Dilruba, refuses to talk about her dad with anyone.

Manavoglu has assumed the role of provider as she tries to patch her husband's dream back together and earn a living, while trying to be there for her children.

"I have to be everything to [my children], both mother and father," she said in a victim impact statement during Johnson's sentencing Friday. "I never get to have breakfast with my children. . . . My children cry every night. And I don't get to tuck my children in at night for bedtime."

Boston Police homicide Detective Brian C. Black, has been in touch with Manavoglu since her husband's murder. He said he was moved by her strength.

"She has an infectious smile. For a woman who has been through what she has been through, it amazes me at the pleasantness that she can bestow upon people," Black said in a phone interview Saturday. "She's a very strong, focused woman. Very determined."

A year and a half ago, when Johnson was arrested, Manavoglu had no understanding of the American criminal justice system. She didn't understand the jury trial that was to come or the term "plea bargain" when it came up during the case. But a year and a half ago, she also didn't know how to run a restaurant or manage employees, either.

"I think that you call it 'justice is served?' " she said. "Yes."

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com