SMOKEY POINT — Trying to chat with Annabelle Jennings at Nadine’s was difficult this week. You had to sneak in a word or two between all the hugs, tears, cards and roses that kept coming her way.
After 11 years as a hostess at Nadine’s All-American Restaurant (formerly Wayne’s) in Smokey Point, the 80-year-old is tearing herself away from a huge throng of friends to join her kids in Michigan.
On Wednesday, Jennings’ last day of work, waitress Caren Allard leaned in to check on her.
"Are you going to make it today?" Allard asked.
"I don’t think so," Jennings said, tears welling. "I didn’t think I had any more tears left, but I guess I do."
"I’m saving my tears until I go home," Allard said, unconvincingly.
Hints of Jennings’ popularity are easy to find. The menu has an Annabelle Burger. A framed photo of her at the cash register shows six Tabasco sauce bottles in the foreground and the words "Hot stuff!" written on it.
Clyde Pendergrass, a frequent customer, can identify with Jennings. They’re both 80 and have to struggle with their mobility. Pendergrass uses a wheelchair, while Jennings walks with difficulty because of arthritis in her lower back.
"You would think she’s handicapped, but she’s not handicapped, that gal," Pendergrass said.
Another customer, Nancy Bakeng, agreed. She got to know Jennings away from the restaurant as well, inviting her over for visits.
"She’s in constant pain, but it didn’t keep her down," Bakeng said.
Jennings downplayed the praise.
"You know, all I have to do is go to a nursing home or visit some of our customers who cannot get out of bed or can’t even communicate, and it makes you feel better about a few aches and pains," Jennings said.
Jennings’ upbeat personality set the tone for the rest of the staff, customers Dave and Joan Ronning said.
"She was a good influence on the rest of them," Dave Ronning said.
"She remembers everybody’s names," Joan Ronning said.
"They all know you by name," Bakeng said, nodding.
Jennings grew up in Snoqualmie Falls but left the state soon after she married a Navy man, Guy Jennings, during World War II. The two raised their family in Detroit.
She came back 33 years later after a divorce. Her family worried about her being alone so far away, she said, but Washington was home to her and she missed it.
They need not have worried. A people person, she integrated easily into the community.
She reflected on her time at the restaurant.
"The upside is watching the kids grow up," she said. "First they sit in their parents’ arms, then they need a highchair, then a booster chair, and the next thing you know they’re in school."
The downside, she added, is when she notices seniors who quit coming because they were sick or in a nursing home.
In September, her family came out for a surprise birthday party. And as much as she loves her life here among friends, the ties to her family in Michigan proved too strong.
"When they left, I realized how much I missed them," Jennings said.
Jennings decided to move back to live with one of her daughters.
"The first thing anybody says to me is it’s cold," Jennings said. "But I lived there 33 years. The thing is, now I don’t have to get out in it and don’t have to shovel it."
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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