April 2024
Dear Aunt Sharon:
This bowl belongs to you for very good reasons.
Your grandmother Frances, while raising her children, worked as a caretaker in the homes of Granger's more wealthy folk.
Mom said my great-grandmother would make the long walk to these homes daily and do the
laundry and cooking in those homes and then have to come back to her own house late in the evening and start all over again.
When no longer doing that housekeeping work and as an
elderly granny, Mom and I would visit her and great-grandpa Tom, and I can still see
the round ball of bread dough rising in this bowl sitting on her counter.
Your mother Vlasta raised you and your 8 siblings while also tending to others who trickled into the family's home. Whether Joe, her husband’s father, they took in when he was in his sunset years -- or their neighbors, the quiet lonely man in a tiny shack behind their home, or those in need in church and community. So many memories I have of my grandmother working hard in that garden with a chopping hoe, carrying that big basket of your large family's laundry under one arm and that handmade clothespin bag slung over the other shoulder. Like so many household items she sewed herself - aprons, house shoes, potholders, pillow covers, doilies -- there was that bright green clothespin bag!
But she really worked her arms hard rolling out that kolache dough! I was so impressed by her strength and stamina. We grandkids thought it always such a treat on kolache-baking day to make the holes in her dough and fill those holes with poppy seed or other fruit filling. And it was a bowl similar to this one that featured prominently in that process.
Mom inherited Grandma Kovar’s bowl and I have such fond
memories of all she made in it. This
bowl saw quite a few batches being prepared of Mom's Million-Dollar fudge,
sourdough bread, and raw vegetables from the garden scrubbed and washed. An old wood-handle utensil that had a round
head of bristles on it would sit nearby that she had used to scrub cucumbers now filling this bowl. And, of
course, while Mom was doing all that she was watching over her Daycare litter of children
in the house.
You certainly have these memories of your grandma, your Mom, and your eldest sister as well.
And you certainly have followed in these
great women’s footsteps in the care you’ve shown to extended family. I appreciate so much all you’ve done for my
folks, struggling with dementia in their sunset years. That’s why this bowl belongs to you.
Promise me you’ll explain its historic significance to your daughters, my god-daughters – Nancy and Kendra --
And make them promise you that they will continue to pass on
this special family legacy!
Love you,
Terry
More of Terry's Written Works
History:
Favorite Articles:
Terry’s “Good Living” Guide:
Avoid the 3 PsBsSs
Processed Foods, Phthalates, Plastics;
Beef, Butter, Breads;
you’ll be feeling better in no time!
Avoid the 3 F’s
misinformation, fear, anger and hate!
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