THE ADDAMS FAMILY CAFE

A few days ago I met Actress Elizabeth Cooper, who lately opened a very special coffee shop and for this decision had 4 pages on the local newspaper.

Although being in London, the coffee shop is based near Westcombe Park Station, in a place that seems to be another world, so hidden that most of the locals are unaware there is a park in there.

After half an hour of desperate search, a woman shows me the entrance, and says she lived there for 2 years before finding that park.

Then I find Elizabeth having a tea with a customer and his dog, in a calmness I never saw in London.

She shows me this amazing eco sustainable place: on the roof she has solar panels to get electricity independently and flowers to attract bees, and out of the walls she has iron framing where ivy is growing up: "Next spring the coffee shop will be all covered in green", she says.

Admiring the place and all her efforts to make it something unique, I ask her:

- Isn't it a graveyard you have in front of your coffee shop?

- Oh, yes! - she replies enthusiastically, and takes me to see it.

She introduces me to some of her friends (soldiers died in past wars), and shows me her secret place when she wants to stay alone or read: a small portion among the tombs, covered by the willows.

She asks me what I think about all this, and I ask her "What about your career in acting?".

She says she is planning to drop it for a year, let her coffee shop take off and then come back to the scenes.

She says she has been an actress for 10 years now, always rushing for castings and taking any jobs, just because of all the competition there is in this business: everyone fearing to be forgotten, losing opportunities and not being able to pay the rent.

She wants to build something to care about now, something that can make the difference.

And if a part of me is starting to agree with her, another one says:

- But Actors have a limited career, and especially for women it's hard to find a job when you get older. A year is a lot of time.

I stated the obvious, and she smiles at me.

With the manners one would use to calm down a child and open his eyes, she says:

- Films reflect real life, and as far as there will be old people in real life, there'll be always an acting job for old actors.

She is so beautiful...