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Doris, who goes by Annie, recently retired at age 70. She is now 71 and spends her days around plants, herbs, and food.
She worked at a telephone operating company for 33 years and did the “Floridian” thing, enjoying the weather and beach for about five years before moving back home to Indiana.
“I moved back and built my home here in Fort Wayne, and I needed something else to do, so I went to school for certified dietary manager, and I received that and started working at dietary kitchens for nursing homes. And I learned so much about food during that,” Annie shares.
She went on to start a catering business that keeps her very busy. She also loves gardening and raising fresh herbs to use in food. “I love gardening. I love growing fresh herbs to use in all the food I like. Just love all the flowers. Just keeping everything green,” she says.
Her Green Thumb and Other Passions
Annie is passionate about gardening, food, and cooking. She says gardening is motivating because you know that you’re growing something fresh that you can eat and share.
“I love gardening, as you can tell with all the plants and everything,” she says. “I’m really into herbs and things because I think using that in food—since I like to cook—it really makes a difference.”
Annie adds, “I eat a lot of vegetables, and I think the herbs going along with that is all beneficial. I eat fresh vegetables and fruits every day, and you can’t possibly eat enough—as I learned when I went to school—there is no way.”
Annie gets up early, works in her yard during the day, and takes care of her dog—a poodle named Sophia. She has never had a dog before but now experiences so much joy from owning one.
“She gives me so much joy, and she’s very stubborn,” Annie shares. “She is a standard poodle. She has her ways, and she’s the boss of the house, so she sleeps with me every night. She takes up the king-size bed.”
Annie explains that Sophia requires a lot of walking because she is a large dog, but that’s a plus for her!
“It’s nice. It gives me exercise,” Annie says. “She [Sophia] is busy. She’s only a year old now, so she wants to be active. So it keeps me active, and thank goodness. I would say most days she’s very, very busy.”
Other than being a gardener and a new pet parent, Annie does catering and dietary nutrition consulting.
“I like to make all kinds of food, so that keeps me really busy, and I also do consulting for dietary departments and nursing homes,” she shares. “I love working with nursing homes and assisted-living-type people; they really have a need for someone who cares about them and cares about the food.”
While growing up in Southern Illinois, her family grew all of their own food. “Everybody had a green thumb in the family—I’m one of 13. I’m the youngest of 13 children, and we all worked in the big garden and raised our food, and I just have always loved plants and flowers,” she shares. “So I just always loved playing in the dirt, I guess. It’s fun.”
Annie says being able to cook with her own fresh herbs—going outside and picking something—makes a big difference.
“A lot of my girlfriends—I have a group of 20 or 30 that we get together like here or wherever—and they always want me to cook. I’m like, I want to go to their house, but they always want to come here. They like fresh herbs and everything and just all the flowers. It’s very calming.”
She Values Staying Busy and Doing the Things She Loves
Annie shares that she has not taken a nap since she retired. The reason? She loves to keep busy.
She explains, “I love to keep busy. And that’s one thing I did notice: I am up and going all day long. I hardly ever just stop, and my friends are like, ‘Don’t you ever stop?’ And I go, ‘Well, sometimes.’ But I just love to keep busy. But I don’t do the things I should do, like clean my closet or clean my pantry, and it’s always working outside, doing something that’s more fun.”
Annie says she feels like she needs more time in her day to keep everything going. “It’s just a constant busy, busy, busy all day long.”
Annie’s busy day starts early. After she lets her dog run around a bit, she will take care of the local feral cats. Annie feeds them and cares for them. For instance, Annie will catch them in a cage and take them to the Humane Society to be spayed or neutered before returning them to their home in the woods. She will get them chipped and vaccinated, as well.
“It’s a busy job because they keep reproducing, and I just recently snatched like five kittens from a litter, and my friend across the street and I, we fostered them and raised them,” Annie explains. “Now they all have nice homes. She kept one of the cats, and I kept one of the cats. So that also keeps me very busy. Then we took another five kittens in, and we just recently got them out—fostered as well. So that is very busy. You’re just constantly busy with them, you know, feeding them, taking care of them, going in and back and forth to the Humane Society, things like that.”
In addition to her work with cats, Annie works and cares for her plants. “I’m busy in my yard almost all day and then, if I start making food for a catering service, then I’m up sometimes at 4:00 a.m. and get to get that all prepped and ready. And then the next day, hook it up and deliver. So those days can be 12- to 18-hour days, so I’m going all the time.”
When she caters, it is very involved. Annie will buy her ingredients at the store, prep everything, and then cook it the next day.
“It’s all day. And then when I finish the cooking, I get everything boxed up, ready to go, and then it’s delivery. You have to set up. Sometimes they ask you to stay, and so that’s a very long day. Sometimes my days just for doing that are 12 hours or better by the time I cook it, get it ready, go in, and stage it.”
Not to mention, Annie teaches cooking classes, too! Busy is an understatement when it comes to Annie.
“I enjoy cooking very much,” she shares. “I also do cooking classes. So I do those sometimes at home or somebody’s house, and it teaches them how to prepare the food. Cooking with herbs is huge. They all enjoy that or different herbs and dried spices, things like that. So they enjoy that a lot, and it brings joy to me to see that somebody else is learning.”
Trying Balance of Nature Supplements
Annie heard about Balance of Nature supplements from a TV commercial, and she has been taking them diligently for over two years. She decided to try them because she related to some of the things she heard on the commercial.
“I feel like everybody ought to take them, actually,” she says.
Annie is also a fan of the fruit and vegetable ingredients in Balance of Nature supplements.
“As you watch the process, and when you see the commercials and how they do it . . . it makes sense. I like the idea that if you wanted to, you could break the capsules open and put them on something if you’re not able to take the capsule. I’ve done that sometimes. I just wanted to see. Sometimes I mix it with a vinaigrette or something and put it on my salad just to see, and it works—tastes good.”
Annie also shared this fun tidbit: No matter what happens, she wants her Balance of Nature supplements! “The one thing I want is my Balance of Nature supplements. I don’t care if I don’t have anything else.”
Annie Lives the Best She Can
Annie believes it’s important to live the best you can.
“We only have so long on this earth until we, you know, go where we should go to see God and everything, so it’s important that you live the best that you can.”
To learn more about Balance of Nature supplements, visit BalanceofNature.com.
