My Personal Chef with Complimentary “Happy Hour”

It has been always two years now that I have grown very fond on my dear client Yvonne. I met Yvonne when she first called me asking if I would take her husband, Theo for a long drive. They had just moved to Vancouver from Vancouver Island and lived in the basement suite of their daughter’s house. Theo longed to see the sites of the city and to see how much it had changed in 40 years. Soon after those drives it began to turn into the three of us going for lunches and dinners to various restaurants. He always had a beer and she loved her glass of wine. Shortly after that, Theo took a fall, broke his hip and had to be put into long term care. Yvonne had too much time on her hands so I began to visit her quite often in the evenings. She will turn 88 this year and with myself not having any parents, I looked forward to sharing many stories, watching TV, eating and having a glass of wine. Soon after that we decided to call it OUR “Happy Hour” together, but only this hour lasted well into the evening.

While at happy hour, her phone rings and it was a doctor’s office confirming her appointment. During the conversation she was asked how old she is and she told her, the receptionist said she had a very young sounding voice. Yvonne’s comment back was, I would gladly change it for other parts of me!

After several trips to the beer and wine store, Yvonne discovered that our favorite wine now came in a box, which entailed 5 bottles of wine. This eliminated all the clutter of the bottles and she just had to store one box in the fridge. No more carting around bottles to the recycling, no more fighting with the cork, it was one simple box and light weight for her.  Then one night, I was sitting with her and after a few glasses of wine, I turned to her and said, “You know what the problem is with boxed wine?” She said “What?” I told her that we weren’t able to tell how much we were drinking because there would be no empty bottles to count. She said “Don’t worry about that I have another full box in the closet so get yourself another drink!”

From those evening of reminiscing, Yvonne would tell me what she had prepared in the kitchen that day, for her daughter. It always sounded yummy and my mouth would water when she describe how she cooked everything.  Now, I love to cook BUT Yvonne has a true passion for cooking. She pays a great deal of attention to detail and presentation. She told me that back in her day she would bake and cook for a local deli and do many catered events. For the past several years Yvonne and her daughter prepare a full 5 star gourmet dinner for 20 top drawer business men on Vancouver Island. They refuse to have anyone else do the catering.
 
Yvonne decided that with this extra time on her hands that she would like to take an interior decorating course online. She enrolled, got the books and starting plugging away at it. About three months later I noticed she wasn’t doing it anymore so I questioned her on it. Her reply was, ”All the book talks about is the wonderful colors and color schemes. There isn’t much you can learn when all the pictures in the book are in black and white.”

Then, one day I got a call from her and she simply asked “Is there anything I can make for you?” WELL, that wasn’t going to go unanswered! I wasn’t going to ask for anything too difficult because I didn’t want to put her out in any way. I asked for some vegetable soup so I went to our favorite vegetable market and picked up all the necessary ingredients, mostly organic as she likes to cook and eat clean. I brought everything over to her and we shared a glass of wine. This has been going on for some time now and her cooking for me has progressed to several times a week. Usually on Monday, I bring over the necessary ingredients and when I arrive in her kitchen she insists that I do not put anything away as it gives her something to do. If I try to put things away, she looks at me and says, “Stop it!”  I always ask her if I am imposing on her and she keeps telling me that as long as she is in the kitchen she is at her happiest.  Living only 5 minutes away from her, it makes for a very easy pick up and drop off.

Many times when I arrive for happy hour she will have prepared cheese and crackers, pizza or appetizers, all made from scratch. This woman loves to cook and I love to eat it!

Living in the basement suite, they had a chair lift put in for Theo to get up to the main level in their back yard. After he was put into long term care, the battery was left on and it went dead. She got very concerned that the lift wouldn’t work anymore and I couldn’t figure out why she wanted it fixed as I knew she didn’t need to use it. She said she uses it to send her beverage and food tray up to the main level so she can entertain us in her backyard. It eliminates her carrying anything up the stairs which is difficult when you use a cane. All she has to do is use the remote and up goes the tray. In her case this is what she would call “Hands Free.”  

She likes to play a word puzzle game against the computer. When you ask her how it is going she will tell you that the computer cheats! The computer enters words that are not in the dictionary and when she tries to enter a word that she knows is in the dictionary, the computer will say it is not a valid word and does not allow her to input it.

She is the biggest fan I know that has gone green. No chemicals in the house, no chemicals on the lawn, all products must be biodegradable and she can’t understand how they sell recycled toilet paper, she figures it must be better the second time around. She uses her own cloth bags for her groceries, doesn’t buy things that have excess packaging, mostly buys bulk and all bags that are used for that are usually filled with cooked goods for me. Keep on filling those bags, Yvonne!

Cheers,
Colleen
Surrey/Cloverdale