People We Meet: The florists of the Ocean Beach bathroom

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On days when Ocean Beach is not engulfed by fog, sunlight pours through the skylight into the oceanfront restroom at Judah and La Playa streets.

On a recent Tuesday inside the 1930s women’s restroom, lined with cream yellow and green tiles, Jennifer Ázima and Joy Perdue were busy making small bouquets in plastic party cups. 

When they left, the restroom had fresh flowers on the sink, the hand-soap dispenser, and the diaper-changing station. 

“I have to be a little bit more creative,” said Perdue, 75, as she arranged magenta wildflowers and pink spray roses in plastic cups. “I found little treasures on the beach.” 

For the bouquets, Perdue reuses coffee cups from Andytown Coffee Roasters, or colorful plastic ones left behind on the beach after bonfire parties. She brings flowers that her husband gives her every week, or blooms from her garden, and gathers others from her walks. 

Perdue started picking up trash on Ocean Beach 11 years ago. At the time, she was troubled by anxiety and depression, and caring for her mother, who was in a care facility in the Richmond. 

Ocean Beach was a place where she didn’t have to worry about her mom — or anything else.

“Going to the beach, that was my meditation. That was my church,” Perdue said. “I felt like I needed that, so that I could be good for her.” 

Perdue’s mom, who recently passed away at 106, loved flowers. At Perdue’s former part-time job at a pet hospital, clients would always bring flowers. “So all of a sudden, that became my thing,” Perdue said.

No matter the weather, Perdue cleaned up the beach almost every day. And Jennifer Ázima, who worked as an attendant at the portable toilet near the Beach Chalet, noticed her. Last December, Ázima decided, “I’ve gotta say something to her.”

The two became quick friends, and Ázima came up with an idea to make the Pit Stop look nicer by putting flowers on top of the sink. At times, Ázima even brought her own essential oil and sprayed it on the fixtures. 

Ázima, 33, works under the Pit Stop program, run by Mission Hiring Hall and the Department of Public Works, which manages public restrooms around San Francisco. From Sunday to Thursday, Ázima commutes an hour from Oakland to the restroom on the far west side of the city. 

Before this job, Ázima worked as an at-home caregiver for a senior. It was hard on Ázima when she passed away, and Ázima wanted a change.

“I wanted to do something for society, just a small thing to do that could really make a difference,” Ázima said.

When Ázima moved to manage the restrooms less than a mile south at Judah and La Playa streets, Perdue followed. So did the flowers. 

At first, the bouquets were only placed in the women’s restroom.

“We are so surprised how much the women love them,” Ázima said. Women come into the bathroom and take pictures to show their male friends.

“I told Joy, ‘I think the men are getting jealous,’” Ázima said, laughing. That’s how the duo started putting flowers in the men’s restroom too, albeit “a lesser version.”

Even though the flowers usually just stay in plastic cups, they often continue blooming, thanks to the abundant light from the skylight and the cooler temperatures near the ocean. 

“Some of these ladies said, ‘Oh, I just want to go to the bathroom to see what you put up today,’” Perdue said. “Like a daily special.” 

Perdue still comes to the beach almost every day.

“I could be here all day if I’m not paying attention,” Perdue said.

With leg issues, she has to limit her beach-cleaning time to two hours. But she says the real treat is to spend time with Ázima, her “work daughter” and dear friend. 

“I still enjoy seeing her every day. I care about what happens to her. I want her to get a promotion, but then I won’t see her,” Perdue said. “I just feel like, how lucky I am to get to see her every day. We just understand each other.”