The sudden death of her husband pushed new mother Yonelle Drakes to cope with the grief by immersing herself in the art of baking. What started out as a coping mechanism has evolved into a full-fledged business today.
“It was a means of escape because the grief was so intense,” she told the Sunday Stabroek about the period when her 31-year-old husband Osei Drakes died suddenly leaving her widowed and with a six-month-old baby.
Her story of creating her business, Nelle Gateau, which she is in the process of rebranding, is even more inspiring because throughout it she had a full-time, day job as a customs officer.
With the support of her five sisters and other family members and friends, she rallied through and not just with her skills and what she has learnt locally but she recently graduated from the International Culinary Center (ICC) in Manhattan with honours.
