A Traditional Recipe

Cecelia Klein, 45

Los Angeles

My parents opened Fred’s Bakery & Deli in 1949, and my brothers and I practically grew up there. When we were little, we’d come in to make up boxes and put out cookies. When we were older, I started working full time in the bakery, while Steve, my older brother, spent a few years as a mail carrier and Harold, my younger brother, went to law school.

Now Steve and I run the bakery, Harold is our lawyer, and my 11-year-old daughter, Melissa, is growing up in the bakery.

We’ve been bringing Melissa to the bakery since she was 6 months old, and our schedule hasn’t changed much over the years. I start work at 3 a.m. My husband, Larry, gets Melissa up and drops her off at 6 o’clock on his way to work. She has breakfast with me, helps out until 7:30 and then goes to school. I leave work at 3 p.m. to be there when my daughter gets home from school. After helping Melissa with her homework and spending some fun time with her, I fix dinner. My husband gets home at 5:30, and we all have dinner together.

I go to bed at 8 p.m. My daughter tucks me in every night and then her father tucks her in.

The best thing about this schedule is that it gives Melissa special time with each member of her family. She gets breakfast and afternoons with me, getting up and bedtime with her father, dinner with both of us and hours through the day with her uncle.

My parents raised us to have a strong sense of family, and family is the most important thing in the world to me. My only regret is that they aren’t still alive to see what a great job they did.