The Word On Grand Avenue: Where’s The Beef?

Vilmarie Ayala emerged from The Meat King market Wednesday morning with no meat.

She did have a smile. Thanks to the 3‑year-old girl running around the quiet parking lot playing with cardboard boxes.

That 3 year old is Ayala’s granddaughter Delilah. Ayala’s son Manuel Arce drops Delilah off at grandma’s house on Chamberlain Street every weekday morning on his way to work at the Church Street army recruiting center.

On Wednesday Ayala decided to beat the crowds to the Grand Avenue Meat King, formerly the longtime home of Ferraro’s Market and recently merged with C‑Town. She planned to cook meat loaf later in the day for the family’s supper.

“I like to have the ingredients so I don’t have to come back out. After 2 o’clock? Chaos,” Ayala said during a parking lot conversation on the ​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s ​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.

Ayala, who’s 47, didn’t expect to be spending her days caring for her granddaughter.

Then, two years ago, Delilah’s mother Quiara Maisonave died in a crash on Dixwell Avenue involving a motorcycle on which she was a passenger.

The family pulled together. Ayala, a retired New England Linen laundry worker, agreed to watch Delilah during the day while her husband (also named Manuel) builds crates and works the paint line at a Hamden metal sidings plant.

“Because of him I get to stay home with my beautiful granddaughter,” Ayala said. ​“Even if I’m upset she keeps me with a smile on my face every day.” She was busy working outside the home when her own children were that age. With Delilah, ​“I see her every moment. That’s an upside.”

When Ayala’s teenaged son Elieser and daughter Limarie come home from school, they’ll sometimes help out with Delilah.

And on Wednesdays, Ayala’s grown daughter Clarimar has off from her job at Amazon, so she comes at noon to take Delilah for the afternoon.

Before that happened this Wednesday, there was meat loaf to shop for. It turned out Meat King had no ground beef when Ayala and Delilah popped in Wednesday morning. ​“I guess I’m too early.” So they hopped in the car to head down Grand Avenue to Key Foods (until recently a C Town) to search there.

Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Vilmarie Ayala on the​“Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s​“LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.

Click here and see below for other​“Word on the Street” episodes.

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