Late last night my son Zach tagged me in a comment he made on Facebook.
It was his answer to a picture with a caption asking people to name the
food(s) they thought their grandma cooked better than anyone else. Here is his comment: Granny Great’s rolls and wilted lettuce. Best in the
world. Am I right, Darla Noble?
Zach was
referencing my Granny (his great-grandmother). Granny was known for many things—including
the fact that she was an amazing cook. It wasn’t just the fact that she was a
great cook, but it was why she was a
great cook. You could literally taste the love and care that went into
everything she cooked even though she did it all so effortlessly. It was just part
of what made her…Granny. While I was replying to Zach’s comment I was giggling
because for some reason just a day or two prior to this I had randomly recalled
another memory about Zach, Granny, and her cooking…
As soon as we
got to church every Sunday the kids ran straight to Granny. On this particular
Sunday Granny said she’d cooked a pot of chicken and dumplings for lunch and
asked if we wanted to come eat with her. Of course we said yes. Now in our
family, if you have chicken and dumplings you have mashed potatoes to go with
them. But when Granny went to peel the potatoes she discovered the potatoes
were bad—all except two. What to do? She had a small box of instant potatoes
she used for thickening soup, so she just added some of them to the two
potatoes to make enough for everyone. No big deal, right? WRONG!
Zach, who was
ten or eleven years old at the time, happened to pass through the kitchen just
in time to see Granny mixing the instant potatoes into the real ones. He couldn’t
believe his eyes! His Granny Great,
the absolute best cook in the whole world…the Granny who loved us more than
anything was feeding him “fake potatoes”! What was the world coming to? His
reaction was a mixture of shock, disbelief, and yes, even disappointment. It
actually took Granny a few minutes to explain what she was doing and why and to
assure him that she was still the same Granny he knew and loved. Zach knew that
Granny’s cooking skills was only one of the ways Granny expressed her love for
us, but it was also one of her best ways. So when she ‘cheated’ he took it personally.
I’m happy to
report that by the end of the day we were all laughing about it, and that night
at Bible study she and Zach even shared the story with our friends
at church. I’m also happy to report that Zach and Granny laughed and smiled
about a lot of other things for several years to come—including him making her
a great-great grandma twice before she passed away.
So what do
instant mashed potatoes and cooking skills have to do with parenting?
We all have one
or two things we do that stand out to our children and grandchildren—things we
do (or say) that they view as expressions of our love for them. And we have a
responsibility to make sure we don’t disappoint our loved ones by giving them
cause to think our actions are anything less than genuine and sincere.
If you asked
your children what they associate your love with, what would they say?
Love,
Momma D
Copyright 2016 Darla Noble. No part of this can be used or copied without permission from the author.
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