BC’s Stars is a series of articles that highlights people of the BC community who should be getting more attention. They are the people who make BC such a great and unique place.
As school children all know, a good PB&J sandwich for lunch can make any day of school much brighter. The essential ingredient—the hands of a loving mother who prepares a unique sandwich for her special child the night before—is the key to the sandwich’s success.
The memories that come from the first few years of school often are accompanied with a lunchbox and its contents. First grade, with Thomas the Tank Engine as the face of my lunchbox, was a lot less intimidating than I expected. To this day I believe that my mother’s little notes tucked inside my lunchbox next to my delicately wrapped tuna sandwich had something to do with it. That being said, as children move from their Barbie lunchboxes in elementary school to colorful and plain ones in middle school, and lastly to paper bags in high school, there is one element that remains constant: that good ol’ mother-made sandwich.
Ana does more than make sandwiches. She provides students with motherly affection—something hard to find in college setting.
The love and care that Ana L. Jimenez, the sweet-voiced 10-year employee of Eagle’s Nest, puts into making each sandwich is comparable to the effort our mothers made for us as we went through 12 years of schooling. Indeed, being college students away from home eight months out of the year leaves many of us missing a motherly presence in their lives. Ana freely and unconditionally provides that little motherly care many students crave for in a day.
Originally from Cali, Columbia, Ana has no children of her own. “I feel that all the students are like my children,” Ana expressed with emotion. “I told this to Uña Marcela, the secretary, that I have many children here. Many adopted children.” It is for this reason that she makes a tremendous effort to make the best sandwiches that she can. When told that many students describe her sandwiches as made with motherly affection and love, Ana responded that this was exactly the feeling she meant to convey through her work.
It truly is no secret that Ana makes the best sandwiches, and she is well aware of the length of her line and the amount of time students spend waiting for her. “It’s exciting!” Ana said. “I like it when all the students are waiting for me.” She adds that although she knows her line is the longest, she never really pays attention to the other two lines. “I’m very concentrated in my line and it doesn’t matter to me if there are people in the other lines or not.”
The average waiting time for Ana at peak lunch hours is usually 15 to 20 minutes, and sometimes even longer. Regardless of the wait time, it’s very important for the students to have Ana make them their sandwich. “I hear the students talking sometimes about how they wait for me,” she laughed.
Ana describes students as very patient and polite, especially when waiting for her. “They don’t yell or cause disorder. They don’t say bad words. The students are good people and they wait, wait, wait, and wait! And they always have a smile for me.”
And sometimes students will directly approach her.
“Some students will say something like: ‘Ana, your sandwiches are delicious and special. We are always waiting for you to make them,’” Ana said. “When this happens, I feel so good and happy!”
Just like a good mother does, she has a place in her heart for every child and remembers the majority of the regulars that she sees, but also immediately detects new faces. However, there is a select four or five that Ana has a special relationship with. “I see them in my line and right away, I recognize them. They are students who always order the same thing, every single day. So even before they ask, I know what sandwich to make for them,” Ana explained.
And Ana’s message to her adopted children? Like all mothers, she emphasized the importance of continuing our studies, as well as not acquiring bad habits when we go out. No drugs! “Have fun, but in a healthy way! You can go dancing, you don’t need to use drugs!” Ana said with a laugh and a serious undertone.
Ana, with a smile and emotion in her eyes, thanked me for the interview and told me how proud she felt to have been chosen by Her Campus BC to be interviewed. Ana’s parting words to me sealed the deal and left me overwhelmed with deep gratitude.
“Don’t ever forget that you will always have an adoptive mother here for whatever you may need—whether it is a sandwich or anything else. I’m here.”