18 —-

‘Nednesday. September 10, 1997 — North Shore News

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Shore news

's¢eeu30) NEIGHBORHOODS

Daycare operator retires

24 years in
the business
in Lynn Valley

By Deana Lancaster

News Keporter
deana@nsnews.com

LELLA Umedaly was
at a Vancouver recep-
tion for Pavarotti when
a strange man came up
to her and embraced
her.

“He came up, hugged and
kissed me. He even had tears
in his eyes,” said Umedaly. It
turns out she had taken care
of the man’s now-grown son
in her’daycare years before. At
the time, the man and his wife
were splitting up and she'd
provided the boy with some
stability. The father couldn't
thank her enough

It was a Familiar story
when Umedaly. opened the
Bambi Daycare in the base-
ment of her Lynn Valley home
in 1973.

Separation and divorce was
becoming increasingly com-
mon, and households in
which both parents worked,
the norm.

“She was not just looking
after children,” said
Umedaly’s daughter Umeeda
Switlo. “She was also coun-
selling parents through times
of heavy stress.”

Not any more though.

On Aug. 29 Umedaly said
goodbye to her last group of
children at the daycare. She
has officially retired.

Now the adventure play-
ground behind her home is
deserted, the basement empty.
Umedaly has already sold the
tables, chairs, shelves, cup-
boards, toys and instruments.
She even managed to sell the
toilets out of the daycare’s
washroom.

Other odds and ends are
boxed up for donation to the
Salvation Army and to the
needy in Afghanistan.

“I have mixed feelings,”
she said. “I’m happy in a way
that Tcan do things for
myself, but I will miss the chil-
dren and the.parents.”

It has been 25 years since
she, her husband and five chil-

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dren arrived as refugees from
Uganda, and almost all of
those years have been spent
taking care of local children.

Before that she taught at a
preschool in Uganda.

She estimates she has
taught approximately 1,000
children in her lifetime.

Now she plans to travel,

“make a beautiful garden” in
the backyard and convert the
basement into a guest suite for
her children and their families
when they visit.

The parents have already
expressed their disappoint-
ment.

“J even had one of my for-

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mer children who wanted co
send her child here.”

She was popular because
she was “an adventurer,” said
Switlo. “She was the first day-
care in North Vancouver to
get a van ... so she could take
them on adventures with
her.”

She took the kids to parks,
skating, swimming, even
camping once.

But she was also firm.
Switlo remembered working
for her mom as a teenager.

“It’s the only job Lever
got fired from,” she laughed.

“She could never get up ia
time,” added her mother.

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AMBLESIDE, WEST VANCOUVER

LELLA Umedaly
is ready to “do
things for
myself” after
saying goodbye
for a final time
to the children
who attended
her daycare on
Aug. 29. Lynn
Valley parents
will miss
Umedaly and
the Bambi
Daycare.

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