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Day One: Monthly Letter
Dear Readers, My mother died one year ago this month. In some ways I feel as if she has been gone for decades; the loss of her love and friendship runs deeper than I can express. In other ways, however, I feel as if she never left. A few nights ago I was standing at the kitchen sink rinsing a pair of big Idaho potatoes for supper when her presence seemed to fill the room . . . and my heart. I held the potatoes under the cold water, rubbing the left one against the right until all of the surface dirt was washed away down the sink and only the clean tender skin remained -- I knew it would bake into crispy, edible perfection. Such a familiar action, rinsing potatoes under running water. How many hundreds of times have I done that same thing in the course of my life? I couldn't possibly guess. It's nothing I ever thought about. I never wondered how you wash your potatoes. This was simply the way it was done.
You know where I'm going, right? The gesture was my mother's and my grandmother's before her. For a split second the years vanished and the barrier between worlds dissolved and I was as connected to my mother as I had ever been when she was still alive. I could see her at the kitchen sink when I was a little girl, humming along with the radio, dreaming dreams I hope all came true. I see her briskly rubbing potatoes against each other, then patting them dry with a clean dish towel. I see her peeling an onion -- so carefully you would think she sidelined as a surgeon! A child of the Depression, she had learned not to waste food. Even a lowly layer of raw onion had value her Baby Boomer daughter would take years to understand.
She wasn't one for contrived holidays. Oh, she appreciated a Mother's Day card and flowers as much as the next woman but she knew our love for her encompassed the other 364 days of the year and more. "I'm a lucky woman," she told Roy the year before she died. "You two make every day Mother's Day for me." It was the least we could do.
Chapter 4 of Midnight Lover is up and running, as are a few new recipes I know you'll enjoy. I'm barreling toward the finish line on my new book (which seems to have a mind of its own!) so I'm not putting as much time into updating the website as I would like. Just hold tight -- this summer I promise to add lots of new content that I hope will keep you coming back. In fact, how about two chapters of Midnight Lover per month? Starting this month, I'll post a new chapter on the 1st and the 15th of the month. If you'd like to be notified when these updates are up and running, drop me a note at Barbara@barbarabretton.com with Midnight Lover in the subject header and I'll do the rest.
With affection,
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April 2002
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