If you needed money, and Louise Aneiro only has $ 3 in her pocket, she would give you everything and probably go to find you more.
If you needed a ride, even to Georgia, it would take you there without thinking.
If you live in one of her rented units and you can’t pay the rent, she would come up with something with you.
If you were somewhere near her restaurant, Rusty Duck, if you were hungry, she would feed you, whether you were a person, a stray cat - or an escaped prisoner from the county jail.
One night, while the restaurant was closing for the day, two employees went out into the parking lot when a man in prison clothes came out of the woods behind the restaurant and asked the employees to drive away.
“We started talking to him, and Louise went out to see what was going on,” said Jesse Ramson.
Louise called the man inside, sat him down at the bar, gave him a plate of ribs and juice, and sat down to talk to him.
“She told him that fleeing has its punishments, that in the end you will be caught, maybe they will be milder if you surrender and say you regret your mistakes,” Ramson said.
After the man finished eating, everyone went outside and marked the deputy who returned him to prison.
And if you knew Louise, you would know that while the man was leaving, she said to him, “God bless you,” and that’s how she ended every conversation.
‘Duck Road’
In the Citrus County, Louise Aneiro was mostly known for her superb cooking at The Rusty Duck, her eclectic small restaurant with mixed décor and a grape-covered exterior.
She and her late husband, Ed, owned restaurants in New York and Florida before moving to Citrus County in 1981.
They bought a former donut shop on the Gulf-to-Lake highway in Lekant and as Ed did all the restoration work himself, which took him seven years, Louise worked for the Tampa Tribune and Key Training Center until the restaurant opened and she she could do what she loved most, cooking and caring for people.
Rusty Duck opened in 1989.
Louise Aneiro died on May 5 at the age of 81.
In 2009, Louise told the Chronicle that the name was a combination of her two favorite places: Rusty Pelican in Miami and Mucky Duck in Sanibel.
“Someone told me, ‘Well, if you’re going to put together names, Rusty Duck is much better than Mucki Pelican,'” she said.
She called her way of serving “Duck’s Way”, which means that everything was made to order, and the dishes needed time to prepare, people often had to wait for an hour to get food.
Calling it “duck way” was her way of letting visitors know they had to be patient if they wanted certain menu items, such as pebbles in puff pastry.
And since dinners were served in two separate seats - you couldn’t just get in from the street without a reservation - sometimes Louise was known for telling people in the early seats that they had to leave.
She was known for her lobster biscuit, pebbles, grape cream and beef hashish, her premium ribs and, of course, her duck - Sticky Duck, Duck Emily (baked with skin removed and deep-fried, then put back on top , a piece of crunchy taste), Creole duck.
“Her food was one of the best you could get in our area,” said Dr. Joey Bennett, “and her generosity and support for various programs in this area to support cancer patients has never stopped. All you had to do was ask for her support, and she would make a monetary donation and also provide us with gift certificates for the prizes at my annual golf tournament … … It was a great advantage for our community. ”
The restaurant staff was her family
Jesse Ramson met Louise when he was 6 and his mom worked at Rusty Duck as a server.
“Louise pretty much adopted my mom,” he said. “I started working there when I was 11, driving tables, washing dishes … so I grew up there.
He added: “Louise was with my mother when she died, and I was with her when she passed away, so it was a full circle.
Louise considered everyone who worked for her to be her family.
Many of the servers who were artists or artisans from the side had their works exhibited (and for sale) on the walls or at the reception or hung from the ceiling.
Every Christmas, she would take everyone to a wildlife park to see the lights, and when they returned, a Chinese dinner would be prepared for them and everyone would eat together.
“She was generous, caring and compassionate, and she was 100% dedicated to the restaurant and us,” said former worker Bo Alexander. “She was more like a mom to me; at 14 she gave me my first real job. ”
Louise was so dedicated to her staff and customers that the night she had a heart attack while cooking, she went to the emergency room, but refused to be admitted because she had the people she fed and the employees she needed.
The second time, she faced a man with a gun who entered the kitchen through the back door and pointed a gun at her while she was cooking.
“She thought it was a joke, one of the old dishwashers,” Ramson said. “She started yelling at him, ‘Put that gun away before you hurt anyone!’ How dare you! This is not funny at all! ‘ The guy was confused, “he said.
Someone got into a fight with the guy and they both fell down the stairs, fighting, and in the end the guy ran away.
Louise went outside and saw her employee face down on the ground.
“Are you ok?” she asked.
“Yes. “I’m lying,” he said. “Did he leave?”
Strange, caring and kind
Longtime friend Cheryl Phillips compared Louise to the character of Mrs. Watson in the book “Wrinkles in Time”, big glasses, tousled hair, but filled with wisdom and a heart of gold.
“She had a strong personality and dominated the room,” Phillips said. “She reminded me of a gypsy. She always bought campers, she wanted to travel.
“We’ve been to the same Bible study together since 2000,” she said, “and whenever we had a Bible study in Duck, she would always feed us - lamb, sashimi, her chocolate fountain … but whenever we had pot, I would buy something from the store instead of cooking! ”
If Louise had a mistake, it was her penchant for speeding.
“She was full of manic energy,” Ramson said.
In the middle of dinner, she would go to Walmart for a lettuce just so she could drive 100 miles an hour.
Another friend, Judy Baker, said that Louise always shared her faith in Jesus with everyone she met and often brought people with her to church. “She was not ashamed to talk about the Lord,” Baker said.
“She loved God, she loved people,” Baker said. “She liked to please people, help them and diminish them. … She picked up the wanderers; she fed the homeless. Once, she sat with the homeless woman in the car all night because the woman was afraid and had nowhere to go.
Baker said that in Louise’s last days, while the cancer was ravaging her body, her spirit remained alive and well.
“Even while she was suffering,” Baker said, “she told me that the Lord had showered her with blessings.
At the commemoration of Louise Aneiro on June 25, she was remembered as a gift to the community.
“I don’t know where my life would be without her,” said Bo Alexander. “I could always count on her. … She inspired me to be the best version of myself … and every day I am grateful for all the ways she has touched my life. “
Louise Carr Aneiro died on 5 May. She was 81 years old.