By Karen McConnaughey
I am 63 years young, and I have a maid and a gardener twice a week in my home in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. I almost wrote that twice! That’s how wonderful it makes me feel! I can’t keep the smile off my face!
As with many of our friends who retired in Mexico, my husband and I came to Mexico for the lower cost of living, temperate climate and leaving the rat race! I didn’t realize what I was getting into when we said lower cost of living! We actually have money left over to eat out (at the many excellent restaurants in the area), go to concerts and plays, shop in the many open-air markets and at the malls in Guadalajara, invest in health club memberships, go to the movies (of course, the matinee price is $20 pesos, so that one is easy!) and so much more.
Our maid Vicki and her husband Jose (our gardener) have become our friends. We have attended graduations and baptisms as well as fiestas at their house. They know everyone in town, so if we need something done…like re-sealing our roof for the rainy season or putting in a drainage system so our water doesn’t damage our neighbor’s house, Vicki knows the person to call for help, and she always makes sure she does the negotiating so we get the best price!
When she took off recently (40 days before and after the birth of her baby), she trained her sister to clean our house. Then Vicki got bored, so she came back to work until the birth of her baby for no extra money! I am a clutterer, so she ‘makes’ me occasionally get rid of stuff just by asking me questions about something. She is a wonderful organizer…and a stern taskmaster when she thinks I’m getting over-cluttered again!
Besides all the ‘regular’ stuff a house cleaner does, she changes my bedding and she also does windows! In addition, she started doing my laundry…can anyone say ‘heaven?’ She’s always very careful about my stuff, because she’s seen me just dry my clothes for a short time, then hang them out on the line. She reminds me before she leaves that there’s something in the dryer and I need to take it out when it’s ready! Both she and Jose have keys to our house and our three dogs know them, so they come and go as they please. Vicki calls the gas company for us when we’re out of propane and she deals with the children who come up asking for some sweet limons from our trees. She comes if she has to walk, if Jose can drive her or if she has to take a bicycle. And, the cost for all this is less than $4.00 an hour!
Jose keeps the garden looking perfect. Bill calls it Jose’s garden now! He knows when to trim, 
what to cut and when, when to paint the trees to protect them from leaf cutter ants, and what and when to prune our many fruit trees. We never tell him anything any more. And, this is after a full work day. He works at a warehouse (fabrica) in order to get the IMSS insurance for his family.
They’re just a wonderful family, and we are grateful we met them and the fact that they’ve been with us for three years now. It’s a joy to be around their small family. And, we feel very blessed…when we went to the last fiesta at their house, they treated us as family finally! Usually they would wait on us as honored guests. We always felt a little embarrassed. During the last party, they pointed out the food and where to get the drinks and ice and let us do our own thing! We were elated…we felt like family.
There’s no place like home, and Lake Chapala, Mexico, has been our home for almost six years now, and we feel thankful every day of our life to have discovered our paradise on earth!