One of the Many Chapters of My Mother’s Life

  by Samarah Hector, High School for Community Leadership

 

My mother, Nadine Dorothy Hector, was the owner of a successful restaurant in Haiti called Dorothy’s Resto, back in 1998. When I asked her about it for this blog, she was very hostile and didn’t want to talk about it. Finally, on our way home in my mother’s car, I asked her a question. What is the history of your restaurant? And she responded telling me about her life and food’s importance.

First off, she was a nurse at three different hospitals, one of them was shutting down so she worked in the remaining two. Her little brother had his own business called Quick International, which was very successful because it was in Petion Ville, which is like Manhattan in New York. After a while, her brother decided that he would be moving to Boston, Massachusetts and he would sell the business. My mother asked him to give the business to her for her own profits and her brother did. Then Dorothy’s Resto opened.

During this time, Petion Ville in Haiti started to gain more international businesses like Cam Money Transfer, Intel, and banks, which meant more business-like people were coming into Dorothy’s Resto. And the restaurant continued to succeed!  My mother had permanent clients from the workers, and she was becoming very known for her food and her personality towards everyone. She will give free food to people of need, be very friendly to people who came to the restaurant. She only needed six workers: two chefs, two waiters, one cashier, one delivery man, and my mother was helping all.

My mother was a true businesswoman, she knew how to handle her books, get more people in and kept them coming back. One of the tactics she used was a classic; $5 dollar lunch special from 11 pm- 2 pm. People that weren’t even in the area would come from far places to get a plate because the food was is good. As the story continues, my mother also opened up Dorothy’s Boutique which sold all the main brand names at the time; Shoes, clothes, expensive perfumes and much more. However, times were changing in Haiti. One day, my mother came to the boutique and it was wiped clean, everything was gone. She couldn’t repair the damages so she closed the shop.

Time passed and a massive earthquake hit Haiti in 2010. Dorothy’s Resto was still intact but my mother and I had to seek shelter away from Haiti. The restaurant was still opened but my mother was the only one that knew how to run her restaurant. She didn’t want her name to be tarnished so after two years, she closed Dorothy’s Resto.

This is one of many chapters of my mother’s life. The things that she been through, the stories that I have heard, her accomplishments in such a short amount of time is fascinated to me. Her stories always reminded me about having an education to always fall back on. Even though her restaurant succeeded, she didn’t stop her nursing career. If she did, she had to completely start over her life more than she had to after the earthquake.

I was a toddler during the prime time of Dorothy’s Resto. I remember going there after school when my mother picked me up. The restaurant was pink, head to toe with white accents pieces. I remember the layout. I remember trying to help and being a waitress. I remember going to visit an old man whose house was in the back of the restaurant and giving me candy. I remember so much yet so little of that restaurant. The one thing I knew was that the restaurant made my mother happy. She was always on the go and in the restaurant for hours. I’m glad that I got to experience both of my parent’s businesses being very successful, even though they were gone half the time. It showed me that regardless of how you started, do what you love and keep going at it.