Metamorphosis: Changing to Retirement in Ecuador: The Miss List

As our plans progress and our excitement increases, that obscure little topic creeps into our conversation, what we’ll miss. Not being a student of the human psyche or behavior, it seems only natural that regardless of the situation, when someone leaves one phase of life, there are always things or people that will be missed. To date, on our “Miss List”, we have two items.

Number one on our miss list is Denis, our housekeeper. Denis is always there for whatever we need. She is truly the best housekeeper that we’ve ever had! She is always smiling, always kind and is gentle with Nikolas. She is the best ironer I’ve ever seen. Even the kids at school have repeatedly commented on the creases in my pants. When Bob passed and we were left with the task of dealing with the house, all I had to do was ask Denis. She and her sister have given up the past two Saturdays to work at the Lexington house. Everything is the cleanest that it has been in years and is now ready to sell. Not only is she incredible with the house, she is a great cook. Mexican food is one of our favorites. Occasionally she will treat us with her tacos, which will, as Mick says, “will make you see Jesus”. She has this apparatus, a wooden tortilladora that she uses and even had one brought to us from Mexico.

This is Denis, on the right, and her sister, Centhia, after a hard day at Bob's house.

Yesterday was Denis’s 28th birthday. We treated her to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Azteca near Northlake in Charlotte. I hope Denis and her husband, Ruben, enjoyed it as much as we did. We’ve decided that should we ever win the lottery that we’ll move Denis and her family to Ecuador and have her as our personal assistant. We’ve been so fortunate to have had her in our lives and we will genuinely miss her when we leave.