Staff Spotlight: Zelia Tavares

On April 3, 1989, the Berlin Wall was still standing, the Soviet Union was still intact, and Taylor Swift had not yet uttered her first peep.  It was the first day of work for Zelia Tavares, who holds the record as the longest-serving current employee at Youville Place.

In 1989, Youville Place was the provincial home and administrative headquarters of The Grey Nuns. Instead of assisted living apartments, the campus consisted of offices, apartments for The Grey Nuns, and an infirmary. “The Grey Nuns lived on the second and third floors,” remembers Zelia. “The third floor was the infirmary, so there were patients, nurses, and CNAs. The first floor was where the offices were.” Zelia remembers the first time she saw the Youville Place Chapel and noticed that the statue of Jesus at the altar needed to be dusted. “I got a very tall ladder to clean it,” she says, “and when the nuns passed by and saw me way up there, they were horrified that I would fall!” Zelia adds that she still cleans the chapel every other weekend, but her days of ascending the ladder are behind her. She has cared for the property at 10 Pelham Road for over three decades and seen many changes. In 2004, she was honored by the Grey Nuns with a Mother Youville Award for her exemplary service. When asked what she likes most about working at Youville Place, she says, “Everything! I love to work with people who need help. If you’re good to somebody, you’re going to receive it back.”

“Zelia is like three people in one,” says Vinnie Rodrigues, Director of Environmental Services and Zelia’s supervisor. “She truly loves the residents at the Courtyard shows it by the care she puts into her work. She doesn’t just clean their rooms; she looks out for them. Before she leaves, she checks in to make sure they’re okay. It’s hard to describe how valuable she is to us. She’s also very handy – she’ll help out with any maintenance issues that come up. She used to even shovel snow outside, but Bob (her former supervisor) put a stop to that!”

Zelia moved to the United States from Portugal in 1975, when she was a teenager. She settled in Cambridge where she worked for the American Cleaning Company. “We did heavy cleaning of offices in Central Square,” she says. “We did stripping and waxing, all on a tight time schedule. I was young enough to do it back then!” Coincidentally, Vinnie’s father was a manager with American Cleaning at the same time Zelia worked there. When they spoke for this article, Vinnie and Zelia realized that they had many acquaintances in common from those times, and more than likely crossed paths when Vinnie was a teenager helping his dad out at work! Zelia stresses how important work is to her. She says that on her days off, it doesn’t take long for her to feel antsy about not having a project or a place to drive. To occupy herself she’ll often clean her own house. “One thing I like about this job is that I come to work and I know exactly what to do. It’s a routine. I may not be as fast as I used to be but I can still work quickly.” “She has never left anything undone,” adds Vinnie.

Now a resident of Taunton, Zelia’s daily commute to Lexington is as impressive as the longevity of her career. In the early morning when traffic is light, she says the trip usually takes an hour and ten minutes. Returning home can take twice as long. “I’ve gone through three cars,” she says, “I just changed the motor on my Toyota Venza. The commute doesn’t matter. I do it every day because I love it. Everybody here is good.”