Tribute to the Grandmothers

She did it.  She woke me up without me having the slightest idea that that was what She was up too.

I woke because I was unusually hungry.  I had eaten dinner, and gone to bed not too late, but here I was, in the early morning hours feeling so hungry. My mind wandered to the lack of food we had in the house. Now fully awake, I decided that it was as good a time as any to make that banana bread I'd been wanting to make all week.

There was a brown banana waiting for me on the counter top in my kitchen and it was the perfect opportunity to make "something out of nothing", making food for empty bellies when there is little provisions left (and no extra cash to buy any.)  The banana beckoned me all week to make a bread.  A bread I knew would feed the ever hungry mouths in our home as well as stretch our food dollars. Seeing food go to waste hurts me when so much money, time and energy is spent procuring and preparing food and eating.

And so it began. As I walked into the kitchen, checking for the banana and surveying the initial cleanup work that needed to be done, She came.  She revealed herself to me in the place that we always meet....the early morning kitchen.

As a child, no more then my Zuri's age, my Granny would get up very early in the morning, go down into the kitchen and begin to cook.  Bake actually, she'd begin to bake. many things that we as her beloved children and grandchildren would enjoy for several days forward. She started with bread dough from scratch for our dinner rolls. After making the dough, she'd create the rolls and leave them to sit covered on the counter with a towel, where they'd be left to rise until they would be baked in the evening.

She'd then make raisin bread and sugar coolies, showing me how to press the sugar onto the bottom of a glass and press into the sugar cookie dough. I'd watch from my high chair or helped by her I would stand on a stool and work at the counter with her.

It's funny when she comes to visit me now. Again we meet in those early morning times before dawn. She stands right by me so much shorter then I, (not like when I was a little girl) As I do the baking she whispers for me not to worry. "Everything is going to be alright." she says.  "Do not be discouraged." She's thankful and grateful for how we take care of Dad.  His time is coming soon where he will join her, but no one knows when. She loves Joey. Her baby.  She's so thankful for my mom and her love.

She reminds me that times are hard for women, but that they have been harder in the past.  She is so proud of the work I'm doing. She's so grateful.

I give thanks for these blessed encounters.  When I am looking for a sign or I am at a turning point, or my wits end...or I begin to feel very, very sad, She comes.