Grandma’s Birthday— some memories

About Grandma: I think about the times we’d cook together, which was a lot. She taught me everything, and I mean everything. I wasn’t that good of a student, and there are still some things that I’ll never make like she did, the bread rolls chief among them. However, I was pretty good with cakes because I would follow the recipe instructions, the science, while she did the flair and the art of making the ham, turkey, or whatever else taste good. She actually could draw flowers really well, and she made me a picture once, of some irises and lilies, first learned when she was in grade school during the Depression. She had to leave after the sixth grade, to help on the family farm and to get hired out to pick on others, and later to get married to my grandfather at 16. He was 27.

I think. 

There was this one poem that she would recite to me all of the time: 

As a rule, man is a fool,
When it's hot, he wants it cool;
When it's cool, he wants it hot,
man always wants it, when it’s not.  


One of my fondest recurring memories of my grandmother is her reciting that poem, over the stove, frying whatever that day. She’d always wonder what if she chose the path that wasn’t love and obligation (first to her parents, then to my grandfather). There’s no way to really tell, but she did still become a nurse, so that’s nice. Especially for that time. 

I couldn’t bring myself to cook for years after she died.

happy Birthday, Grandma! 

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