I met Monica the way a lot of Fairbanksians did in the early 2010s - at the Alaska Family Health and Birth Center. Monica and Jamie WERE the front desk. They were the smiling faces that everyone saw first when they walked in to the birth center for the first time (and likely every time after that).
Monica with a table of her Alaska Earth Mama remedies at the opening of the Alaska Family Health and Birth Center’s then-brand new facility in winter 2012, which was also my first and, to date, only First Friday show. {iphone photo}
Looking back at this picture, the words and feelings I most associate with her are gentle and passionate - though she was soft-spoken (literally; I don’t know that she was capable of yelling), she had an understated determination to pursue her passion for sharing wellness and was simply undeterred in her pursuit. Delays aplenty, discouragement unavoidable on occasion; but never waylaid for long. First it was Alaska Earth Mamas, naturally inspired and locally sourced remedies lovingly made in her tiny kitchen while she worked days at the birth center front desk and parented (and even for a while homeschooled) her son as a solo parent.
Later, her business evolved into Just The Tips Restaurant & Wellness Co - first a bright green drive-thru hut on College Road, and then a real brick and mortar location in the small yellow-and-white vintage house off Illinois Street. I want to describe it as having cult-like status in Fairbanks, but the truth is I think it was far too well-known to be cultish. It was coveted, for sure. People bemoaned the fact there was only one of her, the mastermind chef behind recipes that she never even wrote down. But it was always worth the wait. People clamored for more.
I knew Monica best back in the Earth Mama days, both of us in the early days of our small businesses. We collaborated - I took photos; she made carefully crafted herbal bath teas and nipple salve for me to gift to my birth clients.
One shoot we did was during an early spring forage of cottonwood buds - in April, in fact. My daughter, who is now 9, was just a toddler along for the ride, strapped to my back in a carrier. It was a gloriously sunny evening in early breakup - that time when it somehow seems totally reasonable to expect the world to burst into bloom at any moment, even though you’re still almost knee-deep in slush.
Even though I’m known for commenting (loudly) that spring is, hands down, the ugliest time of year in Fairbanks, it was really, really beautiful.
So, so many years later, the editors at Edible Alaska put out a call for images that might be a good fit for the cover of their spring Breakup/Green-up issue. They selected this image of Monica’s palm full of sticky cottonwood buds.
The one and only time I was in Just the Tips, in January, I got to tell Monica she was going to be on the cover of the spring issue. She came out from kitchen to give me a hug and told me that the news made her night. It had been a while, and it was so nice to see her (especially since I had something fun and exciting to share). It’s always such a great feeling to see old photos getting new life, and it was a sense of excitement that we shared.
Monica died, very suddenly, in February. The community around her is devastated, and her loss will be keenly felt always. But I think April is perhaps when I’ll think of her the most.
