My Dad and Grandma

I find myself writing about my Dad and Grandma a lot. I have to say that I loved my Grandma but she kind of scared me a bit too. She always seemed so much bigger and robust then my Mother’s Mom who was a tiny thing, in fact she got along very well with my Grandpa, they seemed to like to razz each other. Even in this picture she is almost as tall as my Dad. (I’m wearing heels so I don’t count) Now that I’m grown I wish I had more of an opportunity to know her. Part of it is my fault, when I shut my Dad out of my life I shut that whole other side of my family out. It’s one of my biggest regrets. I do remember the Sunday dinners when we were with my Dad, all of the holiday dinners and family reunions and I even vaguely remember staying overnight at her house once. She had a little farmhouse in the town of Frankenmuth, Michigan and it was down a really long driveway. I think the memory of  staying at her house is so vivid is because I only did it once. She had a very creepy basement, a big kitchen/dining room and front room, then 1 bathroom and 2 bedrooms. Her bathroom was pink. I loved it. It always smelled of roses and Oil of Olay. I say her basement was creepy probably because my brother or one of my cousins told me dead people were down there. I’m sure it was fun to scare the baby. She had a couple of old barns and a chicken coop as well and a pump out in the yard that you had to move up and down to get water but it was so good.

I have a big brother and 3 older male cousins. My big sister and I were definitely out numbered. I was at least 3 or 4 years younger than everyone else so I was the “baby”, the one that got teased the most it seemed. Locked in scary slaughter houses or taunted to go behind the barn where there were lots of bones of the slaughtered cows. But we always got to go back into the house and sneak a cookie or two out of my grandma’s cookie jar and she always had the best chocolate chip cookies. I think that is what I’m looking for when I try all these different chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Going through her recipes the last few weeks has given me a window into the life of a woman who was widowed with 3 kids and had to work hard to keep her little family together. She worked hard her whole life in the school cafeteria at a time when a lot of women just stayed at home. She just didn’t have that luxury. I look at the recipes for Dill Pickels and I can almost smell the dill that grew right out in front of her house. I wonder about all the recipes for Cherry Pie and then I remember it’s my Dad’s favorite pie. I wonder what other things will come back to me as I read farther. Again I wished I had known her better but I’m grateful that my Dad has gifted me her recipes. I will always have those to help keep me close to her.♥