Deb Drake almost had to swim out of her driveway to get to work Sunday. Lake Monroe flooded her property, but she still got to Bloomington 30 minutes late to clean the apartment of three seniors she has known since their freshman year.
She walked into their spacious apartment, filled with fish tanks and leftover memories of the pregame the night before. Fifty-five-year-old Deb carried in her cleaning supplies and a $1,300 vacuum cleaner that has lasted her 17 years.
Kyle Plaxsun, a soon-to-be college graduate, put his arm around Deb and said, “Here is my angel.” To Kyle and numerous other students at IU, Deb is their mother away from home.
“They are not my clients,” Deb said. “They are my kids.”
They have their actual mom back in New York or Chicago or whatever city or town they come from, but in Bloomington, when Deb comes over to clean, she becomes more than a cleaning lady. She knows how they want their salt and pepper shakers lined up. She knows that one girl likes her toothbrush cup cleaned out and Deb makes sure never to forget.
“I treat them like my children,” Deb said. “I used to clean Kyle’s older brother’s apartment. Students find me through word of mouth.”
Kyle told Deb that his favorite day is Sunday because it’s Deb Day.
She put on purple gloves that hide her diamond ring. Twenty-six years ago her husband made a drunken promise and said if she married him, he would buy her a mink coat on their fifth anniversary, a diamond ring on their 10th and a trip to Hawaii on their 15th. He followed through with them all. He built her the house she always envisioned on a 10-acre property. He’s never let her down.
Deb started to clean up the mess that has accumulated since she cleaned last Sunday. Her small frame moved fast as dirty dishes were put in the dishwasher. She scrubbed the microwave. She wiped off the countertop. She threw bottles away. The mess was quickly turning into a kitchen straight out of an IKEA catalog. It was spotless.
Deb left her hometown of Indianapolis for Bloomington in 1976 and started working in the Briscoe Quad dining hall in 1981. After 15 years in the kitchen, she started cleaning the second floor of the Bryan and Crone buildings at McNutt Quad and has been cleaning those two hallways ever since. On Halloween, she gives all 120 residents chocolate bars. On Valentine’s Day, they give her baskets filled with treats. She knows most of them by name and will never forget a face.
This upcoming June, she will retire from IU and focus her time solely on cleaning the apartments of students off campus.
“I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. I love being around these kids. They keep me young. They let me know what’s going on,” Deb said as she washed a martini shaker. “I’m going to miss the freshmen after I retire. They call me dorm mom.”
Deb works on Mother’s Day, her birthday and every Sunday. She put her hand on the wall and says she knows how to put up drywall.
“I’ve done everything I’ve had to do to survive,” Deb said.
She finds pleasure in making beds and putting students’ stuffed animals in different spots every week.
“I enjoy taking care of them. They also take care of me.”
She finds lost rings, bracelets, sunglasses and remote controls. Their real mothers call Deb and thank her for taking care of their children.
Deb goes from cleaning the IU dorms to cleaning private residences five days a week. One night last week she worked until 2 a.m. When she is not working, she is at home relaxing with her husband and taking walks in the woods, admiring the morel mushrooms that are in season. In her 3,000-square-foot house, she keeps a senior book, which is filled with photos of every one of her kids from the past 15 years.
“I’ll never forget them, but I like to have it all in a book,” Deb said. “Some of them keep in touch, but if I go to New York again it would be really cool to see them.”
She once went to New York and spent four hours on a tour bus. Deb never got to see her kids on the short visit. After all of these years, she has many out there.
Her gloves come off as she finishes the kitchen, revealing the rings that she protects from the cleaning supplies. Twenty years ago, her two real children gave her a ruby red ring that’s attached to their November and December birthstones.
“I prefer the smaller stones that are real compared to the bigger ones that are less in quality. I’ve never been a greedy person,” Deb said.
