Mama's Apron

This is a post from my personal blog, 

originally written December 04, 2009:

mama's apron, significant memory

etched in stone, wrote into my heart

so much time spent wearing this piece

of woven fabric, each morning to start

plain and white when first tied

dirty and dingy when last untied

smears of holiday preparation evident

of her hard labor and loving pride

cake batter and sweet frosting

mince meat and cranberries too

vanilla flavoring and egg nog

cream cheese and whipped butter goo

cooking was one of mama's great loves

from the time she was just knee high

talented to the point of perfection

practice made better try after try

~*~

This was the only photo I could find of Mom in one of her aprons, and it was taken back in 1983 during Christmas dinner.  This apron was clean... she apparently had just put it on, LOL.  

As mentioned, cooking was one of Mama’s great loves… she enjoyed experimenting with various forms and textures of ingredients, trying this and that, until the dish was nearly perfect to her liking. During the holidays, she poured her heart and soul into preparing a meal fit for a king. Honestly, her kitchen would look as though a tornado went through it. Evidence of her cooking would be on the counter tops, the cabinet door handles, the floor- and of course, her apron. I would just lovingly giggle and help her clean up. 

A few years ago, Mama was attempting to demonstrate a lesson to me on preparing dough and cutting it to make dumplings. She was famous for her chicken and dumplings… she made the best dish in the south, no kidding! Anyway, we had such great fun through this experience- she laughed at me as I tried to imitate her perfect pattern of rolling the dough out thin and cutting it just so. Come on, who were we kidding? I could never make dumplings like Mama did. But, I had fun trying. The experience that day was captured on video by my son-in-law, who made a special CD for me and presented it to me after Mom’s death. Such a bittersweet memory now! Tears flow each time I watch it… tears of longing, remembering her in that dingy old and tattered apron with smears of this and that on it, remembering watching her in that messy kitchen doing what she loved best… cooking for family and friends. How I treasure those memories!