Needing Help, Part II: Elisa

I first met Elisa a couple of months after we moved to St. Louis at the playground a block away from our house. She was pushing a baby boy in a swing next to Oliver’s, and I started a conversation with her, assuming she was the baby’s mother. She just had a very easy way about her, and did not have the distracted appearance of most nannies I had encountered in Washington, DC playgrounds we had frequented only months before (she was tentative to the baby but not overly cutesy and not half-pushing him, half-texting).

I remember thinking that she was someone I would have liked to be friends with, and also remarked to myself that maybe this St. Louis place was going to be pretty cool if its nannies were anything like her. Then I told her good-bye, walked home and on went life.

Fast forward a year. We had gone through several temporary nannies during my illness and had decided to hire someone part-time to help after the baby came. And guess who showed up at our door for an interview?! The girl from the playground. Elisa. As we learned more about her (a photojournalism student at one of the best schools for this major, lived close to our house, had stayed with her previous family until they moved away, etc.) and observed her with our rowdy boys, we were sure she was our nanny.

And she is exactly what we had hoped for and more. She takes the boys outside in all kinds of weather- to different playgrounds in our neighborhood, or to the library half a mile away from our house, sometimes pushing them in the double stroller until they both fall asleep. She is not afraid to have adventures with them, and is kind as well as firm with them when she needs to be. She comes up with helpful ideas and fun activities, like treasure hunts and building forts and making paper airplanes and snowflakes to hang in our front window. I like the way she organizes and puts away their toys (!) while they are napping. I like that she knows how to calm them down by reading a good book they have picked out together. I even love the way she dresses!

I like that I feel comfortable around her. I had better. She has seen my house completely destroyed and filthy. She has seen me looking pretty destroyed as well- dirty hair and sweatpants and runny nose… Elisa has seen me as even some of my closest friends have not. When I locked my keys in my car in the parking lot of Whole Foods with only Emil strapped to me in the baby carrier, I knew I could count on her to hold down the fort while I waited for a locksmith. She stayed late and fed the boys until I could make it back to relieve her around dinner time. She has never missed a day, though I hope she knows she could… and we appreciate her so very very much. The boys (including the baby) love her and talk about her on the days she doesn’t come. Elisa is a dear friend and now an extension of our daily lives. We are so very very lucky!

Elisa, it feels like words are not enough. Thank you for being a part of our lives, for teaching our boys and helping to raise them right. We are eternally grateful for you!