Soothing more than soles
West Broadway shop owner’s free foot service for seniors is an act of humility and love
“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.” — John 13: 1- 5, the Bible, New Living Translation.
Three years ago, an elderly man came into Christine Au’s nail salon on West Broadway. He wanted his toenails clipped.
She was aghast at the condition of his feet.
“The toenail on one of his big toes had grown so long it had curled underneath his toe. It took me an hour to cut just that one.”
She asked him why he had let his feet get to that condition, and he said that at his age he had trouble cutting his own toenails, plus he was lazy and didn’t have the money to get a regular pedicure.
Her encounter with the man touched something in her. She came away with an idea.
“He gave me something, that man. I decided that if I can make my business profitable one day, I will put away a halfday to help older people.”
At the time, the business had been a struggle. Christine, who came to Canada 35 years ago from Hong Kong, had originally settled in Alberta, where she had run a Chinese- Canadian restaurant in the little town of Caroline, population 500.
Eleven years ago, she retired, sold everything and moved to Vancouver to be near her children.
She grew bored with retirement. She enrolled in a cosmetology school, learned the trade and six years ago opened up Ruby Nail Spa, at 3450 West Broadway. She worked hard, keeping long hours.
“At the beginning, every month I was losing four and five thousand dollars, but I had enough savings to get through that.”
Eventually, the business began to turn a profit, and Christine kept the promise she had made to herself. On Oct. 1, 2011, she put a handwritten sign on her door, which is still there today, that reads:
“Free Nail Cutting For Seniors
“Every Monday 10: 30 a. m. — 1: 30 p. m. “By Appointment Please!” She would put the word out to customers that if their parents or any seniors they knew needed help with their feet, to give her a call. ( It was one of those customers who contacted me about Christine.)
A clientele began to build up. Now, every Monday, Christine manages to see about a halfdozen seniors. She cuts their toenails, washes and massages their feet and buffs the cracked and dry skin on their soles and heels.
“Very old people have very thin skin,” she said, “so you have to be careful not to be too hard.”
To a younger person, it might seem like a mundane task. But to the elderly, foot care can be a problem, if just because of the difficulty some have in bending over. And for seniors who live alone, the touch of another human being can be an all too rare thing. It isn’t just a pedicure that Christine gives.
“She’s a beautiful, lovely person,” said George Wrench, one of her Monday customers. Wrench is 85. “And you feel great after she’s done. But she insists on me not paying. I wanted to pay, but she didn’t want to be.”
“She’s very outgoing,” said Brigitte Tesniere, another Monday customer, “she likes to sing, talks about anything. Very nice. And if there is any way you can say thank you in the paper, please do so, because she deserves it. Hers is a unique service. ”
Christine is a Buddhist. She only vaguely knew of the story of Christ washing the feet of his disciples, she said, and she wasn’t aware of its significance to Holy Week, or its symbolizing Christian humility and love. Her shop was open on Good Friday. But she said: “For the older people, they want people to touch them and care for them. And for me, it’s like a ... like a ... ( and here she apologizes for her halting English) ... like a battery, you know? Every Monday, I get recharged from them. I feel it, you know? I not only give out, I get back.”
As I left, she asked that if any seniors needed help with their feet, they give her a call. ( The shop’s number is 604- 7328993.)
Then she gave me a piece of paper on which she had written a message — because her English was not good enough, she said, to express her thoughts. The note read: “I would like to encourage other shops to provide the same service!”