My mother died in her sleep over the night of November 11, 2014. I discovered her the following evening. I remember what I was doing on November 12, 2014: after work I went to City Hall security to pick up my new staff badge, as my old one wouldn’t work since it had cracked. I stopped by Walmart to get some shoelaces and to look at the Christmas music. I had my eye on a collection of songs but didn’t (yet) pick it up. And then I went to the Y. I got home, had dinner and resumed the lengthy job of editing photos from my trip to Tristan da Cunha the previous autumn. You can read more about what I was doing nine years ago here. It’s all there, in detail.
Today I will start my Christmas baking. That is a tradition I have taken on since Mom’s death and I know her shortbreads bring joy to dozens of people. They tell me so every year. On this anniversary I want to spend the day cloaked in happy memories. One step into my house after another batch has been taken out of the oven will send anyone into a warm and cozy dreamland of the approaching Christmas season.
My mother would be touched to know that her spirit penetrates each and every cookie. Mom used the same cookie gun for some fifty years–the last time she used it, over Christmas 2013, the gun was already older than me–yet I have put it into overdrive since her death. I am hoping it will stick around to make the 2023 cookie batch. If not, I am glad I embark on the baking project early, as I will need the time to find a new one.
Before I get my kitchen ready to do a double batch today ( = filling seven cookie tins) I have found some more photos of my mother:
Mom as a baby
On this date, May 19, 2004, we went to Square One to look at the budgies at the pet store
Mom with her brother Gary at the ninetieth birthday party for our aunt Marion
Mom with her Christmas doll
Grant and Evelyn’s wedding day, November 25, 2006