Two Westfield Moms Finally Get A Load Off Their Hands

WESTFIELD, NJ — As a nurse, Natasha Gaudin of Westfield helped deliver babies all through the coronavirus pandemic, while taking care of her three kids. Like many moms, she could sure use a few extra hours in the day — but there's no way to buy time.

Or is there?

Hiring someone to do a household chore might help with that goal.

Natasha's cousin, Iliana Gracia, nominated her to win a free cleaning over the summer in a national contest called "Mopping for Moms," hosted locally by the Two Maids & a Mop in Westfield.

"My cousin Natasha is a labor and delivery nurse in NYC and a strong momma to her three kids," Gracia wrote in her entry. "She's been going to work in the pandemic and had a scare herself where she was out sick for two weeks but still manages to be the best mom to her kids.”

The other winner was Terry Cruz, nominated by Niki McCrea, her daughter.

"My mom, Terry Cruz of Westfield, NJ, like so many moms during this time, has been the glue to our family,"McCrea wrote. "In February my family found out that my uncle, my mom’s little brother, has cancer and my family invited him to stay with them during his surgery recovery and ongoing chemotherapy treatments."

She added, "During February and March my mom was balancing her normal life of maintaining the home, going to work full time, and raising an adolescent with the added responsibilities of caring for my uncle, which, of course, she did without being asked and without a single complaint."

She wrote that her mom "spent hours organizing his medical plan with his doctors and making sure he had everything he needed to maintain his normalcy once he is healthy again. On top of this, covid-19 struck and my mom undertook homeschooling as well as the stress of protecting our family while being an essential employee going into work Monday through Friday."

She said, "She took on an enormous stress of protecting several high-risk people in her home and close to her including her elderly mother, ill brother, her husband and myself who was 8 months pregnant at the time. Nonetheless, she remained calm and strong. When her first grandchild was born in May, an experience she has been looking forward to for the better part of the last year, she wasn’t able to be present during his birth and around to be able to help me, her youngest daughter, navigate motherhood in the early weeks."

She wrote, "She has never once in my life asked for something for herself, and she has never had a cleaning service help in her home. As the months have gone by she has continued to silently impress me and the rest of our family, as she always has.”

Two Maids & A Mop is owned by a local family. To read more about them, and how they continued to clean houses during the coronavirus pandemic — even while helping their kids with remote schooling — read a prior Patch story here.

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