Award # 4 (Winner of the month! Says me!)

La Sirena

This is another of those cases I never get to take a picture of. I don’t even have a reason or justification. I just stopped caring of taking pictures at her apartment because I was too focused on understanding “La Sirena”.

She hired me 3 months ago and I see her weekly. She is on her 50s and her main complaint is that she never learned to do “anything” so that’s why she hires people for “anything”. So the first day she hired me, of course, she had a lot of instructions on the things she wanted to get accomplished, on the time she needed them to be accomplished, and the way she though they should be accomplished.

And of course, I said: “No way mama”.
Still, she hired me. She has two cute cats, very convincing as well. At least we both agreed on my own natural hand-made-lemon-backing-soda-vinegar-y cleaning products.

Since the first day I decided to flow and to observe her while cleaning her house. She really intrigued me. She’d talk to me about anything and I’d listen without saying more than a “yes”, “oh my”, “oh dear” or “nooooo” while cleaning the rugs or the counters.

So stereotypical, I know hehe.

With time, things started shifting. First thing I discovered: She hates her job.
“Would you believe they have free alcohol for employees? Imagine how wasted they get all the time”, she’d say.

Me thinking, “I can’t even imagine”. (Can I?)

Then a second discovery:
Sirena: “You can hire X company and they can cook for you and bring you the food home, did you know about them? Imagine how easy it would be”

Me: “Why would I do that?” I can cook real-good! Nobody is messing with my seasoning girl, plus you save money”

She was astonished. She didn’t know how to cook. This is exactly how she hired me for an extra hour for a total of 4 so I could teach her how to cook….and probably to talk more.

We would research cook books, cook for hours and end up having dinner together. She’d tell me about her divorce, we found out that we both do Reiki, I’d tell her about how much I miss my dogs, she’d tell me how she named the cats, me about how I built my cabin with my Dad and my mom’s health issues, she would tell me about her fear to volunteer on the same south garden I’m planning to for fear to the gangs while I’d say “then you shouldn’t go then, cause the community will smell it all over you and they don’t deserve that kind of thinking”. She’d stay quiet and apologize. Then we’d talk about white fragility and how our black youth is dying; “This fucking system!” Sometimes we’d cry.

She’d stay silent for a while then she’d remember how she likes to play music while she listened to this particular radio song. Then I find out she plays more than 6 instruments. “I’d hook you up with my best friend Andrew, he as a killer basement with bunch of instruments for jamming!” I said, but she is scared and I find out she barely leaves the house (but of course I have already texted my buddy and he’d be all about it! Hehe!)

We became friends and we didn’t realize it.

Then one day I asked: “Sirena, spring is coming, any plans?”
Sirena says from the bathroom: “Nothing particular”

She lives in front of the Lake Shore trail and while vacuuming, I then decided to stop and look out the window wishing I was biking instead. Sigh. I asked: “Do you bike?”

She comes next to me, holding her beautiful mermaid mirror while she was combing a braid, looks down to where I am looking, laughs and says: “I used to”

So we agreed on going to buy her bike together soon so we could bike together, and while we had coffee I heard everything about her biking days and she heard everything about why I love biking so much and then she heard everything about this crush I have on this mechanic guy that has a cute beard and rides freak bikes and she thought that was the most hilarious childish story. I knew she’d like his story. Later she admitedhaving a crush too. See.

Then I took a picture of her beautiful mirror before leaving. I left thinking of a master plan to take her out biking soon.

I truly love La Sirena, I don’t know; I guess when you are not home with your best buddies and people you call family (as I am), you learn to see love and friendship on places you never imagined because you realize is way better than isolating yourself. You got to survive the Diaspora one way or another. So you bet is with love and compassion rather than anything. (How freakin’ cheesy yes it is. WhatEver!) ;)