Terri Joyce always has something on hand to share with family and guests. She slices her homemade cheesecake to serve. Photo by Betty Wrenn Day.

Terri gives the credit to her mom for any cooking abilities she has. "My mother is a wonderful cook and is still doing a lot of it." Although when growing up, according to Danny, "her mother said she could never get her in the kitchen, but now I put her cooking right up there with her mother’s."

Terri says while growing up she never remembers going out to dinner, "except maybe after church on Sunday we would pick up a bag of Cheetos or something like that. It was always dinner at home." It was much later on when she developed the love of cooking and adds, "It has been therapy for me. I love to feed people. Cooking equates therapy. My relaxation on Sunday afternoon is to get in the kitchen and cook. In ten days, I’ve made nine pound cakes, giving all but one away. I first loved to just cook. Now I’ve begun to develop a love for baking. But my favorite thing to make is homemade pizza."

Terri fits all of her cooking into a tight schedule, yet comes up with the best. She has a full-time job at Peninsula Heating and Air in Gloucester, and there is nothing unusual about finding her in the kitchen at 8 o’clock at night after work baking a cake or making a dish someone has requested.

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