Life is more interesting when total strangers are in your house.
Dometilia was our first maid. She was the maid of the owner of the villa (that we rented) for 16 years. She was kind, sweet, lazy and a thief. She didn’t steal big stuff, just costume jewelry, t-shirts and cheese.
Enok was our gardener. He didn’t steal. That would have required ambition and he didn’t have any. He didn’t do much at all, if he bothered to show up. His name is pronounced close to “inutil”, which means “useless” in Spanish. It fit.
We had Jose and Johnny as gardners after the owner got rid of Enok. Good men. Now, we have Julio. The hotel supplies us with a gardner now, so we never know who we are going to get.
The former gardener at our second house (who lost his job when we moved in because the hotel took over the job) works for us too, taking care of the pool. We hired him because we felt bad he lost his job and we wanted to keep good relations with the owner of the villa. It has worked pretty well. When we need the owner to know something, Severino calls him. He really does nothing else, except show up on payday. But it’s an arrangement we are willing to live with.
When Grace was born, we needed a nanny. We asked Dometilia if she knew anyone. She told us Suegra was available. Suegra had about four teeth and spoke Spanish that not even Juan Valdez would have understood. She rocked Grace to sleep, watched TV, ate lunch and picked up around the house if something was in her way enroute to the refrigerator or bathroom. After about a month, we found out that her name wasn’t Suegra (Suegra was Spanish for Mother in Law), but Tata. We’d been calling her “Mother in Law” for a month. She didn’t mind. One night, she stayed late and I drove her home. That’s when we found out she didn’t know where she lived. The bus just always took her home and that was enough for her. When Grace began to move around, it was too much for her to keep up with and we said ta-ta to Tata.
After Tata, Dometilia suggested Milagros, her niece. She is still with us today. It’s been almost three years. She is wonderful. About once a month on a Saturday, she brings her seven-year old girls and 15-year old boy to the house for the day. Gracie loves her daughter Jasmine.
Milagros’ other daughter, Albania works as the night and weekend nanny. She lives with us five days a week. She is 20 years old, so it is like having another kid in the house at times, but she and Gracie genuinely love one another and she does a great job with John too. She is going to college during the day in Higuey.
Isa was the maid for a while, after Dometilia left. She worked about three months then moved to Higuey, a town about 30 miles away.
Meri is the maid now. She drives Holli crazy, does a rather mediocre job with the clothes and the cleaning, is a little crazy, but she loves Grace and John and is honest. We’ve had three separate plans to get rid of her, but we won’t.
We spend a lot of time “managing” our people. It’s not as easy as you might think. However, I’m not complaining. It’s a pretty nice thing to have, especially for us.
Occasionally, there are more employees in the house or around the lunch table than family. And when all of them are together in the house, it’s a little chaotic. But it’s a fun group, all with families and hope and dreams. They aren’t any different than we are.
