A chance visit with her husband at work turned into a 30-year career for Maddalena Lattarulo, who just about every River Hills resident, past and present, knows as ‘Maddie at the gate.’
It was at that gate in 1994, in the early stages of development for the River Hills residential community and golf club, off Lithia Pinecrest Road in Valrico, that Lattarulo had that fateful visit with her husband, Frank.
She said she brought him lunch, watched how he went about his duties and, when he took a moment to use the restroom, took matters into her own hands as the car line started to grow.
“I thought, ‘What the heck, let me do it,’” Lattarulo said, as she took to checking the credentials needed for motorists to gain entry. “I didn’t know you needed a license to do the job.”
That realization came when Larry Stierwalt, of JMC Security, drove up to the gate.
“Ma’am, what are you doing?” he asked. “You can’t do that without a license.”
“Larry told me, ‘Ma’am, if you want to work here, I’ll pay for you to go to security school,’” Lattarulo said.
And so it goes, and better off for it are the tens of thousands of residents, visitors and workers welcomed for decades by ‘Maddie at the gate’ — both the gate off Lithia Pinecrest and, as River Hills grew, the gate at its back entrance, off Bloomingdale Avenue. With her license in hand, Lattarulo started her job on February 5, 1995, working for nine years with her husband, who, after a six-month battle with cancer, died on January 25, 2004.
“I didn’t think I would be here this long,” Lattarulo said.
What keeps her going, she added, are “the little things,” like the kids riding their bicycles and toy motorcycles on their last day of school, shouting out that they’ll miss ‘Miss Maddie’ over the two months of summer break.
“I start crying,” she said. “How do I leave these kids? I won’t see all this if I retire, you know? So that’s what keeps me going.”
Ever on the watch, it’s evident that Lattarulo tends to her duties with the same due diligence that caught the eye of Stierwalt, the JMC Security branch manager.
“I’m very careful about who I let in through this gate,” Lattarulo said. “You’re not going to just walk into this community because the road [front to back entrance] is 3 miles long, and you want to get your steps in. Not here. You can go somewhere else.”
If it sounds a bit like a lioness protecting her cubs, you’re on the right track. Residents for years have come to appreciate Lattarulo’s help with problems and issues, and she herself likens her office space, the gate and its environs, to a family room.
“You know me,” she added. “If I can help you, I step in.”
