MEET LATONYA GILES
LaTonya Giles celebrated 16 years at Janet Davis Cleaners this past September! When she first joined our team, LaTonya worked in households. There, she and the rest of the team cleaned bedsheets, comforters, duvets, couch and chair covers, flags, car covers, and
The work she does has taught her a lot over the years, especially when it comes to detail. “It keeps me really busy and teaches me detail, and that spills over into my everyday life. I’m a detail- person no matter what I’m doing. I’ve even learned how to shop for my own clothes just by working here. In this day and age, we get things that say ‘Don’t dry clean’ or ‘Don’t wash.’ My job has taught me to pay attention to these labels.” LaTonya’s family and the owners of Janet Davis Cleaners, the Matthews, go back quite a way. “Our families are really close. We go back to at least the 1980s. My mother knew Mr. Matthews when she was in college, and he knew me when I was in middle school. And , my daughter, Martell Giles, is a customer service representative, so we’ve had three generations of my family working at Janet Davis Cleaners. It’s hard work, calls for a lot of patience, but the work is really enjoyable and we loved it. I really love and enjoy my job and the people I work with.” Before the pandemic hit, she and her husband enjoyed going to the movies or a concert, but this year, she’s enjoyed her other pastime of watching the world pass by. When LaTonya isn’t spending her day ensuring our customers’ wedding gowns are perfect, she enjoys the peace and quiet of her backyard as she sits on the porch. “This year has been real quiet; there’s been a lot of sitting on the porch or riding my bike at least three times a week.” At other times, you can catch her spending time with her family of five children, seven grandchildren, her mother, and four sisters.
banners. Her mother, who was working in households at the time before she retired, taught LaTonya all she knew about our household department. “My mother first started at Janet Davis as she was a cleaner spotter,” LaTonya remembers. “That was when I was in high school. Mom left for a bit, and when she came back, she went back as a presser. When I started with Janet Davis in 2005, my mom was working laundry, but she ended up working in most every position, apart from the wedding gowns.” Today, LaTonya works as our wedding gown finisher. Janet Davis Cleaners has been doing wedding gowns for several years, and LaTonya has been working in this department since day one. When it comes to wedding dresses, we do everything that goes into cleaning them. After the gowns have been dry cleaned or wet cleaned, LaTonya takes them and puts the last finishing touches on them before our customers view them. “I work with all kinds of material,” LaTonya says. “Polyester, all kinds of silks; today, there are many different types of materials. I also work with beads, sequins, really big poufy dresses. I also specialize in any type of linen and evening gowns.”
SUDOKU
Cinnamon-Spiced CANDIED SWEET POTATOES
INGREDIENTS
• 4 lbs orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces, then cut lengthwise into 1-inch wedges • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tbsp kosher salt • 1/4 tsp ground cloves • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed • 4 (2-inch) cinnamon sticks
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 2. Place sweet potato wedges in a 4-quart baking dish. 3. Sprinkle sugar, salt, and cloves over sweet potatoes.
4. Dot with butter and place cinnamon sticks around sweet potatoes. 5. Bake, turning every 15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender and the liquid is syrupy, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 6. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes. 7. Discard cinnamon sticks and serve.
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