letters to your great grandmother

 

Dear Mom,                                                February 19,2021

This has been a busy week for us in Tennessee.  My husband  Charlie turned 71 on Monday.  Our daughter (your granddaughter Suzy) baked him a Chocolate cake and her boys ( your great-grandsons) put 10 relighting candles on the cake.  He kept blowing them out and they kept relighting.  Thankfully they didn’t put on 71 candles or we might have had to get the fire department to put the flames out.

Barbara reminded me that your mom (our grandmother)  put relighting candles on her birthday cake when she was a teenager (over 60 years ago).  We were visiting her in Harlingen, Texas, and Bobbie’s birthday is in late August.  None of us had ever seen relighting candles so we were amazed the first 3 or 4 times they kept lighting back up. It wasn’t nearly as funny by the 10th or 12th time. It generated a lot of smoke in the room and I   remember Dad finally got a glass of water and took the candles off the cake one at a time and submerged them in the water to put them out completely.  We all had to laugh as we never suspected Grandmother to be such a jokester!

Speaking of Cakes I remember the weekend Bobbie brought Joe home from North Texas State to meet you and Dad.  She was really nervous and hoped that you would like him.  You had lots of food and multiple desserts but Bobbie decided she wanted to make a Boston Cream pie from a mix.  You whispered to me, “Stay in the kitchen with her and make sure she does it right.”  She mixed the cake batter, made the cream filling and put it in the refrigerator, and lined the pan with wax paper the way you always did.

 By the time she got it in the oven and set the timer, I felt like she could manage the rest.  That night we had a  wonderful dinner and when it came time for dessert    Bobbie was the only one who chose Boston Cream Pie.  It looked really pretty. The cream filling was in the center and iced with chocolate frosting.  Imagine our surprise when she ate a mouthful of cake and disappeared into the kitchen.

 You gave me “ the look” which meant what’s wrong with the cake? I gave you the “I don’t know shrug!”  In a few minutes, she returned to the table with the cake but no frosting on it.  She looked embarrassed but finally said, “I forgot to take the wax paper off the cake and after I split the cake and put the filling in, I frosted over the wax paper! “  We all laughed because my beautiful brainy sister was so twitter-pated she put frosting on top of wax paper.  Later on, we found out why she was so nervous when Joe asked Dad if he could have his permission to ask her to marry him

Bobbie is certainly a good cook now.  They have been married for over 50 years.  When I first brought Charlie over to meet you and dad,  you looked at his baby face and said, “How old is this guy, 16?”  We were both out of college by then and we have been together for 47 years.

I hope this brought you some moments of laughter.  You and Dad certainly were good role models for us girls.  We love you, Momma,
and pray for you every single day.  We look forward to when we can see you and catch up on all our missed hugs.

Kathy (the one who looks like Dad) and Charlie ( the now not-so baby faced hubby)