A ‘Slice of Heaven’ at Erin Meadows

For Armando and Mirella Mio, home is much more than four walls and a roof over their heads.

It’s about cooking and gardening, building and creating, welcoming family and friends, and finding those little pieces of everyday life that bring a sense of purpose.

Four years after moving to The Village of Erin Meadows, they have discovered that while some things have changed, many of the things that make them who they are remain very much a part of their lives.

For Armando, that means finding places to work with his hands.

There’s a workshop tucked into the parking garage filled with tools and equipment where he spends time building, fixing and tinkering. He even installed a system to collect sawdust when he’s cutting wood.

“Everybody that comes in or goes out, if I’m there, they always check in with me,” he says.

One person who visited his workshop described it perfectly.

“This is your slice of heaven!”

Armando laughs loud as he relates the story – he’s always smiling and always chuckling, no matte the story he’s telling. 

In fact, when he considers it, he says he has two slices of heaven at the Village: the workshop and the garden he tends on the fourth-floor terrace.

The garden has become another place where his creativity comes to life. He has built raised garden beds, trellises and an obelisk, and he continues to experiment with vegetables, herbs and flowers. His fig tree even produced a bit of fruit this year. 

When someone asked him to build something for the garden, his mind immediately began to churn.

“My mind just, hey, it didn’t stop.”

That may be one of the best ways to describe Armando.

He’s always moving and has always loved working with his hands. He spent much of his career in construction and remembers the satisfaction of building something from the ground up. Today, he still finds ways to create, even if the setting is different.

He also finds ways to help others.

Around the Village, he has become known as the gardener and the carpenter. When a resident recently mentioned having trouble putting together a new piece of furniture, Armando offered his help. As he describes his projects, he steps up from the dining room table in his suite and moves into the kitchen space, opening the cupboard to show off the storage drawers he made to make it easier to access all the staples of the kitchen. 

For Mirella, finding ways to stay connected to the things she loves can sometimes be a bit more challenging.

Armando’s efforts in making the kitchen easier to navigate are mostly for his wife’s sake, for cooking is one of her great joys. She loves preparing food for others, and her kitchen was always a place where she could share that love.

But mobility issues have made it increasingly difficult to stand for long periods, and many of the things she once enjoyed doing have become harder.

“I enjoyed that and now I just can’t do it anymore,” she says.

She still has her sewing machine and supplies, and Armando has helped create a space where she can sew when she is able. She has also found other ways to participate, including contributing to a Village cookbook alongside Armando.

And while there are days when her mobility limits what she can do, Mirella refuses to give up.

“I have not given up. I’m always hopeful.”

That spirit may be the most important thing the two of them share.

They both acknowledge they miss parts of the home they once had. Armando misses his old workshop and the basement kitchen where he canned food, made sausages and smoked meat. But he also understands that life changes.

“I make do with what I have,” he says, his smile broad and his eyes alight with the prospect of new projects. 

What he has found at Erin Meadows is a way to keep doing what brings him joy, and that is what making a true home is all about. It’s not necessarily having everything you once had. It’s finding the space, the people and the possibilities that allow you to continue being yourself.

For Armando, that might mean a garden bed, a woodworking project or building a new accessory for the courtyard gardens below. 

For Mirella, it might be cooking again, even if she needs to find a different way to do it.

For both of them, it means continuing to look for those little slices of heaven, wherever they may be.