Thanksgiving Month, Day 4: Room at the Inn

One evening I walked out of the kitchen into the dining room and saw a tall couple standing in the doorway. "Do you have a table for two?" Fortunately I did, and that was the start of my friendship with BJ and Ken Janzen.

During the course of their visit we started to chat: they had heard of Nilgiris from the Boomtown Trail pamphlet and decided to check us out one evening. It turns out that they were the proud, overwhelmed new owners of the Rosebud Country Inn. We hit it off right away - you can't do anything else with BJ and Ken!

Shortly after that initial contact they booked a table for themselves and their staff. The table we set up for them happened to be near the piano and during the course of the meal our other guests were delighted when BJ played a couple of numbers and some of their staff broke into song - it turns out that each one of them is involved in some way with the Rosebud Theatre and we had a spontaneous little display of their incredible talent that evening.

Over the last two years we've seen each other quite a few times, either in the TH or at the delightful Pie Shoppe in the Inn. Once I took Bronwyn, Elliot and Oliver for dessert at the Inn after they had treated me to the theatre's production of Oliver Twist. We sat outside on the deck of the Pie Shoppe and enjoyed the sweets and the sweetness of it all.

Then we took a tour of the guest rooms - ten well-appointed, spacious rooms that promised tranquility and a very good night's sleep. We both commented on how much Mum would have loved this place ...

BJ and Ken have impacted me very strongly this year: she is bubbly, organized, draws people to her. He is quiet, steady, with the kindest smile for miles around. She feels called to the Inn and to her guests and staff; he supports her and has her back in all she does.


Yesterday I had the chance to have tea with BJ in the Inn's upper lounge. Snuggled down in comfortable chairs we talked and compared stories and laughed and shared our dreams for our little places, for our staff, for our lives. It is so rare to find someone who completely understands the ins and outs of what I am going through, who completely 'gets' why something so small can seem so important, why we would invest so much of ourselves into kids who are not even our own kids, why atmosphere matters. But BJ has gone many more steps past where I am. She is a practical visionary,conceiving wonderful ideas and then executing on them. She stands up for what is equitable and right and has been known to turn would-be guests away because of how cruelly and rudely they have treated her staff on previous occasions.

She loves God and she loves people. And she loves Nilgiris too. Her friendship this year has been an unexpected boon to me. Her generous way of listening and her well considered insight have given me much food for thought in how I would like to treat the people who come into my sphere.


If any of you are taking in a matinee performance at the Rosebud Theatre, think about stopping off at the Rosebud Country Inn's Pie Shoppe for some dessert following the show! And if you don't want to drive home after an evening performance, I unequivocally recommend a night at the Inn and a delicious breakfast the next day. BJ will open her home and her heart to you just like she has done to me, and you will be the richer for it.