PAGE 4
Quarry Rock restrictions
Readers weigh in on new changes to be rolled out on our popular hiking trail this summer
PAGE 11
Chatter in the Cove
Fashion designer launches a chic and sustainable clothing line that features plant dyes May 2018
9900 Circulation East of the Seymour River
Soul food nourishes in Seymour area by MARIA SPITALE-LEISK You can’t help but notice Christine Glendinning in the crowded café. She’s the one with the vivacious personality and bright red rimmed glasses to match. Regulars at Riverside Café know her story but others can be curious. There are hats and wigs Glendinning could wear – but it gets too hot, “so forget it,” she says. Besides, the English-born chef can be politely blunt. “If I get that funny look – I just tell people, I’m going through chemo,” says Glendinning, taking a seat after a lunch rush in the café. Glendinning bought the place in November and got diagnosed with breast cancer in December. She opened the café in February – after her first day of chemo. Glendinning had been up all night feeling nauseous and very ill to the point, she says, where “nothing else mattered.” On that February morning, Glendinning’s mom, Linda, was determined to rally her daughter, whose dream it had been to open the café. “She looked at me and said: ‘Christine you’ve got a café to open, you’ve got to get up,’” recalls Glendinning. “And I said, ‘I can’t, I can’t. Anything that happens outside that bedroom door I don’t care about – I’m just so ill.’” Her mom got on the phone with the oncologist and had Glendinning’s medication adjusted, to increase the anti-nausea effect. Half an hour later she found the strength to take a shower. Then she steadily made her way to the café and opened the doors. Regulars in the area started filing in, commenting they were glad the space was open again. Glendinning informed them the café would only be open three days a week: Tuesday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We call them chemo hours,” she says, choking up. Glendinning didn’t want the community to think she wasn’t dedicated or had abandoned the lunchtime regulars in the Maplewood industrial area. So waiting until her last chemo treatment in June to open was out of the question. “I want to be become part of the neighbourhood. I’m a feeder and I’m an open person,” says Glendinning. She’s upfront about her reduced hours and short menu of gourmet sandwiches and soup – each one lovingly cooked to perfection. Cooking is also a good cancer distraction, she has learned. Instead of sitting at home sick, worried, crying or Googling cancer – Glendinning keeps busy in the café. “I get energized by all the people. This place has saved me,” she says, even though some days it feels like a ton of bricks are strapped to her body. Many of them relate to Glendinning’s journey. She’ll hear stories from customers who will say: “I’ve had cancer,” or “My wife’s had cancer.”
Riverside Café owner Christine Glendinning and her mom Linda found comfort in soul food during their mutual battle with breast cancer. PHOTO PAUL MCGRATH At first, some of the local workers, who remember the café in its previous iteration offering meatball sandwiches, didn’t know if they were ready for a change. “There was this big, really buff, really rough looking guy who came it,” recalls Glendinning. The burly guy wondered out loud what he going to have for lunch. A popular Filipino dish, chicken adobo, was suggested to him. He scrunched up his face at the sound of it. But Glendinning would soon set him straight with her delicious cooking. “He said, ‘Fine, I’ll have it.’” The truck driver took it to go. Soon after Glendinning heard the double tap of a blaring horn. “He was like: ‘That was so awesome! I told all the guys at work it was awesome,’” recounts Glendinning with a smile. The chicken adobo is no culinary experiment at this café. In fact, the menu has a decidedly Filipino influence. Customers will make a point of coming in for the fingersize Filipino spring rolls packed with minced shrimp and pork and coated in a fish sauce. Glendinning was raised on chicken adobo and other
Filipino food. She lived on an oil tanker and travelled the world with her family until she was 12 years old. Her dad was the captain of the ship which had a Filipino crew. When Glendinning was done her schoolwork she would explore the ship and help out where a 12-year-old kid could. She could often be found in the galley with the cook. Glendinning became the adopted daughter of the crew members who had left their family members back home. Looking back on her unique upbringing, Glendinning is grateful. A small tattoo on her wrist of an anchor is an homage to that time in her life. “I think it’s given me a perspective of being able to relate to people from any background. And you take a bit of culture from everywhere you go,” she says. Glendinning has lived in the Seymour area for two decades and previously worked as a recruiter and ran employment programs through WorkBC. She stepped down from the job about a year and a half ago when her mom was diagnosed. What happened next is how Glendinning ended up
see Curries page 3
Patricia Houlihan LL.B. More than an agent, an ally. www.deepcovehomes.ca • 604.376.7653 Personal Real Estate Corporation
Top 1% of Greater Vancouver Real Estate Agents 2012, 2014 & 2016 #1 in Canada Coldwell Banker International