Emma has two adult children: her eldest son lives in Irvine, California and her daughter is a full-time mom and part-time hairstylist in Austin, Texas. Emma has been a widow for 8 years, she lives alone and has always taken care of herself. She has a circle of friends but they also have their own families and lives, they are not always available to chat or meet for lunch. It’s her daughter who reached out to us to find out more about ZestFriends™. Emma liked the idea, it felt like a “matchmaking service!” She didn’t want to join a Meetup group “I don’t want to walk into a group of people and have to start talking to a bunch of strangers – even if we have a shared common interest – it’s too awkward and noisy.” The idea of being matched with a companion was more appealing than striking out on her own looking for new friends or joining clubs (“Not clubs, they feel like too much of a commitment,” Emma laughs).
Charlotte (Charlie) is a student at Austin Community College, she wants to major in nursing and is currently taking the prep courses to apply for nursing school. Charlie told us she wanted to become a ZestFriend™ because “I needed a fun job, not something so stressful like waitressing.” She also wanted something that would line up with her future career plans, “It’s good for me because I get to work with people who need help and learn how to care for people as a job.” It’s also a part of Charlie’s nature, that’s why she was drawn to studying nursing in the first place.
Their first day was a real test for them both. “It was raining and I hate driving in the rain, we were supposed to go to the Blanton Museum and then have lunch and talk about what we saw, but that’s a lot of walking in the rain and I wasn’t comfortable eating inside with Covid so the rain sort of canceled the lunch idea.” Instead Charlie suggested a major change in plans. “I said why don’t we make cookies for Emma’s grandkids” only to discover that Emma doesn’t like baking. Emma also didn’t like the idea of cards. Or reading aloud. “I was really struggling with ideas and then I saw her records and my grandma has a couple of records but Emma has a lot, so I started asking her about them and next thing you know she is playing her favorite songs and it was stuff I’d never heard before.” From there the afternoon moved on to Charlie helping Emma create a playlist on Spotify. “Records are great and all that, but that’s a lot of bending and moving so Emma doesn’t play her records all that much – she had Spotify and knows how to use it, but she didn’t know how to make a playlist.”
From Emma’s point of view, the afternoon was a delight. “Here was this marvelous young woman, just getting ready to go out into the world who was trying so hard to make me happy – I’m usually the one worried about other people! I could see she was reaching for ideas and felt bad for her because the weather had ruined her plans for the day. I honestly was about to give in to the cookie idea when she started asking about my record collection. It’s really not much of a collection as much as it’s just my favorite records that I’ve held onto, none of them are valuable but that afternoon they were worth their weight in gold. Charlie had never heard of Ella Fitzgerald and while I know not everyone likes Jazz…how could you not have heard of Ella Fitzgerald? And I got to be the person who introduced her to Ella and Nina Simone and I have plans for Thelonious Monk later but we’re taking small steps here, it’s a jump from Ella to Monk.”
Charlie and Emma have been meeting now for two months, with one more month to go. They’ve yet to get to the Blanton, but they have spent many afternoons going to lunch and shopping “With two kids and three grandkids, it’s always someone’s birthday or special event coming up,” Emma says. Charlie laughs, “She loves shopping, birthdays are just an excuse.” For their last month, Charlie swears she and Emma are going to visit the Blanton. “It was supposed to be our first trip, but maybe instead it will be our parting trip – either way I know we will have a great time.”
