Joe Wilson bio
Joseph Wilson, born on May 2, 1985, was the only child of Katherine and Ivan Wilson. Ivan was a mason, and Katherine was a baker who worked in several five-star restaurants before the family settled in Oxford.
Katherine didn't want to leave her young son with a babysitter, so she worked from her home kitchen. Some customers picked up their orders, but she always personally delivered the food she made for local nursing home residents. She brought Joe with her on those deliveries, explaining that these older people needed love, and some didn't even have families left to visit them. Joe knew at that moment what he would do when he grew up.
Joe loved the aromas of his mother's cooking and spent most of his time in the kitchen with her. As a toddler, he played with the pots and pans his mother gave him to keep him occupied. At first, he just banged them together, but one day, he started following his mother's example and playing that he was a cook.
When it came time to start school, Joe hated leaving the house all day and couldn't wait to return to the kitchen. He learned from his mother how to cook as well as bake and decorate cakes, and he never grew tired of it.
Joe felt the time he spent in school was simply a requirement to be fulfilled. He did his best, but he was eager for it to be over. When he graduated, he got a job as a dishwasher in a small restaurant.
When the owner discovered that Joe knew more about cooking than he did, he promoted Joe to head cook. From there, Joe moved on to better restaurants and learned even more cooking and baking techniques.
Eventually, when Joe saw the ad for a cook wanted at the Yoknapatawpha Acres nursing home, he applied for it and got the job.
He met his wife-to-be there, and Joe and Beverly have been married for eight years. Six years ago, Beverly discovered she was expecting, and she quit Yoknapatawpha Acres to become a full-time mom.
The Wilsons now have two children. Their son, five-year-old Joey, tells everyone he wants to be a cook just like Dad.
