MARYSVILLE – At 81, Donna Hellein is one of the oldest baristas around.
“I never dreamed I would live this long, let alone work this long,” she said with her ever-present laugh.
Known for her smile and jokes, Hellein sees many of her customers every Monday through Saturday morning sometime between 6-11 at Pure Country Coffee.
“It’s like family coming,” she said, adding she gets invited to barbecues, games, bingo and the casino. She met her golf and racquetball partners as customers.
“I like the banter, and the silly little jokes,” she said. “I like when they say, ‘There’s my girl. She makes the best coffee.’ That turns me on.”
Hellein said she tried to quit working a few years ago, but was asked to come back when business declined. She said when she told customers it was her last week, they often responded, “This is my last week, too.”
When she came back, the owner put up a huge sign that said, “Donna is back.” Her customers returned, and she got new ones, too.
“It’s nice to feel wanted,” she said.
So much so she doesn’t know when she will retire again.
“I don’t think about it any more. I can’t part with them. That seven months on the couch was awful,” she said of her previous attempt at retiring.
Hellein spent the first 63 years of life in Pennsylvania, raising three children and working at a bank and then for her brother, an eye doctor. About 20 years ago her daughter, Christine, and son-in-law Christopher asked her to retire here. “My son-in-law called every day,” she said.
Hellein eventually moved here and told her daughter if she ever got “into a pinch” she could help at her barista stand. Christine soon needed her help.
“I steamed milk. We were that busy,” she said, adding there were only five coffee shops then where there are 50 now. “They keep coming, and they keep flopping,” Hellein said.
She said her daughter always insisted they work together. “She wouldn’t let loose; she wanted to take care of me,” Hellein said.
The business became very popular, even having live music on Friday nights.
At first the city praised them for giving folks something to do in town. “They used to dance all night long,” Hellein said, adding years later the city wouldn’t let them do it anymore.
Hellein ended up buying the coffee shop from her daughter after Christine went to seminary school. She owned it for five years.
“I thought I was too old for this,” she said.
Yet, she’s back again. She likes not being the owner. “I can take a nap,” she said.
Born in 1935 in the middle of The Depression, Hellein said she’s always had a happy outlook on life. “I’ve been accused of drinking, but I don’t need that to be happy,” she said. “I try not to let anything worry me.”
Ironically, even though Hellein makes all the fancy coffee drinks, she likes her coffee black. “At my age you can’t put those added calories in there,” she said.
While young at heart, Hellein said she just can’t bring herself to work as a bikini barista, even on hot summer days.
“I joke that I have a bikini on under my clothes every day,” she said with yet another smile and laugh.