I had the pleasure of meeting her in 2004 when she became a co-worker of mine. Age is just a number when it comes to building relationships. Ms. Glenda was about 40 years my senior, however we became quick friends.
I looked to Ms. Glenda as a mentor. She always had the best advice. She had the quirkiest personality but it drew me to her.
We bonded over food. I can honestly say she aided in my addiction to chocolate. Before I met her, I was more of a salty craver, but spending countless lunches with her, she taught me that we should always follow up our meal with a piece of Ghiradelli Chocolate. She also ate things I'd never heard of such as capers, and the above linked, Lox. She made sure I always tried things, even if I wasn't sure if I'd like them. I now use capers in various meals, and adore eating some fresh lox and cream cheese on a bagel. She made one of the best chicken salad's I'd ever tasted, and guess what? she put capers in it as well.
Ms. Glenda was a true city girl at heart. Being down here, she was out of her element. She worked as a trainer at my company for many years, and was known as the offbeat one. She often wore two different shoes during her training classes. She wanted to see how much her students really paid attention, not to mention many times she just forgot to fully change out of her "driving" shoes. She'd have a driving shoe on one foot, and a dressy one on the other.
Glenda was always trying to figure out what it was about the "south" that made people want to stay here, and never travel. She was in shock when another co worker of ours told her that she had "never been on a plane, or left the state of Florida, and did not plan to, ever" Glenda asked her "you don't want to travel? and see the world?" and the co worker said "no, my family is here in Florida. I have no need to go anywhere else." That just baffled Glenda as to why someone would never want to venture out of their "comfort zone". I, on the other hand, LOVE to travel, so she was delighted when I said I'd accompany her on a trip to Philly for her to conduct one of her training seminars that she did. I had never been to Philly, and I figured why not? I had my 1st real Philly cheese steak with Ms. Glenda. She also showed me that Publix's Philly Cheesesteak sub is the next best thing to a philly FROM philly.
We spent many hours talking about the differences of work ethic and morale between the city, and down here in the South. We work(ed) at a call center together and every day we heard a new, crazy, story on why an employee could not make it to work. They went beyond the typical "i am sick". We had many written down, wanting to compile a book of the weirdest reasons to call in to your shift. I wish I could remember more of them now. I know I have that list somewhere.
Our boss used to always make fun of us for us being "detectives" we read into many cases and would tell each other our own theories of what happened. A big one for us was Natalee Holloway. If only she knew that the person that LAST saw Holloway on the night she disappeared was involved in yet another murder 5 years TO THE DATE of Natalie Holloways disappearance. I can only imagine what she'd say.
While she always poked fun at me for my passion for animals, she once told me of a story of one of the few pets she owned. A cat that she loved, loved so much it died. The story was quite sad (funny). She got this cat, but didn't want it to stink or shred all over her house, so she was CONSTANTLY bathing it, and feeding it human good. It got sick, she took it to the vet, the vet told her "Glenda, you are trying to take care of the cat like you would a child, baths, human food, etc, you can't do that, the cat is NOT human"
Ms. Glenda moved back north in 2009 and I didn't see her after that. I went and visited with her as she was having a yard sale before she left. I bought a few things. That was the last time I saw her. I am not exactly sure what day she passed away, but I know it was sometime in May 2010. I received the news while I was at work. I will never forget it, my boss called and said she had some bad news, and told me that she was informed that Ms. Glenda had passed away. I remember I said a prayer and cried.
I will never forget this eccentric women that came into my life in 2004 and left foot prints on my heart. We shared SO many laughs :)
 |
| Ms. Glenda is in the middle |
XOXO
No comments:
Post a Comment