We like to come up with all sorts of engaging activites for our residents at Windwood Trail Haus. Earnie’s homework, and activity in the Day Room on Monday, was making her famous Brunswick Stew.
When I was growing up she made this all the time. It never occurred to me that when I be-bopped into her room Sunday night to give Earnie her little last call cookie that she would look at me blankly when I suggested she make it for Monday’s dinner. She said it had been so long since she made it she wasn’t sure what the ingredients were. Actually, I don’t recall her making it since she and Ray moved in back in 2007.
Earnie has a stock pile of recipes in a box. All kinds, mostly ones she has cut out from the paper over the years. I suggested she take a look see in her box of recipes and maybe that might trigger it for her. Good brain work going on here, I was thinking. She found the recipe, although I am not sure it’s the actual one she used to prepare. But, it’s pretty close.
Apparently, Earnie stayed up until 2 a.m. looking for the damn recipe. Meanwhile, she was doing something to her computer. It was about that time that I was woken up from a sound sleep hearing the musical stylings of Susan Boyle down in Earnie’s room. I had all four cats on top of me and even they were jolted from sleep. They flew off the bed, while I sat straight up thinking maybe I had died in the night and this was the introductory song they sing as you enter the gates of heaven. I’m sure my hair looked a fright, too. I didn’t see Jesus anywhere, so I figured I was still alive. After about 3 minutes of this musical snack, I got out of bed thinking, “I know Earnie has hearing loss, but geesh, this is loud.” I started to make my way out of the room and she must have figured out how to turn it off. When I left for work, I left her this note:
Back to the stew…We had hot, steaming bowls of this last night for dinner with Miss Bee’s cornbread. The cool front had blown in so it was a perfect night for Earnie’s stew. Susan Boyle didn’t make an encore performance last night so it was a good night’s sleep for everyone.
Hospitality is in my DNA. I founded Home with a Twist, a daughter’s twist on her mother’s traditions, in memory of my mother to celebrate her life and the gifts she shared with me. Mother loved to celebrate life’s occasions – big and small.
