A waitress at a family diner in Westville, N.S. has a little more experience than your average server.
Thanks to good genes and good health, 85-year-old Barb Barkhouse still works at her daughter’s diner.
Beth Purvis purchased the restaurant eight years ago and named it “Barb’s Family Diner” after her mother.
“When I brought her here and showed her this is what I wanted to do … she believed in me and there’s no one in this world I admire more than her,” Purvis told CTV Atlantic.
It’s not just her daughter that holds Barkhouse in high-regard; many of the customers admire her sprightly spirit.
“She’s got the energy of a 20-year old. Wish I had half of it,” commented local customer Bill Bowman.
“I hope that I can be the same way that she is when I’m her age, being able to do what I love,” said customer Brian Leahy.
Barkhouse really does love working at the diner.
“I’m just in here for the pleasure of it,” she said. “I like meeting the people in here, it's wonderful.”
She works two-shifts a week only because she doesn’t want to “take any of the other girls’ shifts,” and with both Barkhouse’s parents living well past 90, it’s likely she will be waitressing for many more years to come.
With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Dan Macintosh
