Noreen is the ‘lazy housewife’s cook and the husband’s best friend’
The political situation in Zimbabwe as well as her deteriorating health after she suffered a stroke, forced Noreen van der Linda to close down her successful business.
POLOKWANE – The business made sure that people do not go hungry. Her husband lost his job at the time and they only way to make a living was through selling the food which she makes.
Soon after things got too bad in Zimbabwe and she moved to South Africa to try and make a new start here. She also wanted to help out her younger daughter, who had a newborn baby to care for. “One of the bosses at the place where my daughter used to work, was very interested in the food that she got in for lunch everyday. He used to test whatever she’s having and then later on said he knows of a lot of people who would buy the food if they were given the chance. I then started to make food for the hungry golfers at the club and life was treating me better for a while,” she says.
A personal matter had the family relocate to Polokwane soon after and Van der Linda lost everything again.
She currently struggles to make ends meet and depend on the small market near the shopping centre in Flora Park, where she sells the various things she can make. Her dream is to once again look after the hungry people. She calls herself the lazy housewife’s cook and the husband’s best friend because the housewives look like they have done their day’s work when they buy her food, and their husbands do not complain about the taste. “Cooking is a part of me and I think that I would die if I would be forced not too cook for just one day,” she says.
She explains that she loves people and that this goes hand-in-hand with making good food. She currently makes a living from flea markets within the city but looks for the opportunity to make people happy with the big variety of food which she makes. “If given the opportunity I would like to even give people a taste test of the various foods which I make, so that they can see for themselves if they would be happy to maybe have my food in their homes at dinner times, over weekends or on holidays,” she says.
