Leo Parker, Glen Park’s UPS driver, took a two-week break recently to celebrate his 60th birthday and 35 years delivering to Glen Park. He spent a week with family and another week in West Hollywood with friends that flew in from Australia.
Leo always lets neighbors know via Nextdoor when he’ll be away. You know what’s coming when he posts, “This is Leo Parker, your favorite UPS driver…” and indeed it’s no hyperbole.
To honor Leo’s birthday, Glen Park resident Candice Lopes went all out and baked a perfect replica of Leo’s uniform and presented it to him.
Originally from Sydney, Australia, she’s lived on Congo Street for the past eight years with her husband and two children, ages nine and six.
Of her skill in baking Candice says baking for friends and family has been a hobby for several years, but now she’s established her own licensed business out of her home, called Sugar Glider Cakes. Her website is up and she’s also on Instagram.
Candice was inspired to bake a cake to pay tribute to the birthday milestone and to Leo personally. “Leo was such a friendly welcoming presence right from when we very first moved to Glen Park. He always goes above and beyond and this was just a small way of giving back. Although Leo is so much more than just ‘our UPS guy,’ I felt that it is so much a part of him and this design is what first came to mind when deciding to make him a cake.”
She’s unsure of exactly how long it took to make the cake but she estimates at least 12 hours.
Leo knew Candice had made a birthday cake for him but when he went to pick it up he could only see the top of it in the box. “We opened it up at my mother’s house and we were like, WOW, THAT IS SPECTACULAR! We sat there for a couple of hours trying to figure out how to cut it because it was so gorgeous, I didn’t want to.”
If you know Leo you know he takes logistics seriously in the way he loads his truck and plans out his daily route. He applied these skills to this task. Thus:
“I cut it in half between the second and third button. We got spatulas, lifted up the top half of the cake and put it in a cake pan and we worked on slicing the bottom half first and then we worked on the top half. I was saving slices for everybody in the family–my brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews– and dropping them off at their home or bringing them when we went out to dinner.”
Glen Park is glad Leo is back now.
When he’s away he’s always concerned about the neighbors and issues this suggestion:
“Be careful and watch your deliveries.”