In Honor of Granny

This week I lost a very important woman in my life – Granny Aileen.  Before I left for Ireland, I visited her in the hospital.  She and I had a wonderful conversation about some of the many trips she had taken throughout her life.  Granny Aileen loved to travel almost as much as she loved food.  We joked that once I got back from Ireland, I would teach her how to river dance and she made me promise to tell her all about the food in Ireland.

Since I have been in Ireland, I have done quite a bit of cooking of my own.  In my grandmother’s honor, I made her famous chicken salad with grapes this week.  It was not as perfect as hers, but it tasted so much like home that I ate the entire batch in one day.  I have also made tacos, hot chicken and cheese sandwiches, and various pasta dishes.  My cooking skills are basic at best, but I am trying.  I can remember when I was a little girl, Granny Aileen told me that she could not boil water when she first got married (she was sixteen).  It is hard to imagine a time when she could not cook – this woman was a whiz in the kitchen.  Every Christmas and Easter she would cook enough for a small army, making the most amazing candies, cakes, and cookies.  There was nothing that she could not make.  I remind myself of this as I struggle to whip up a meal – skill will come with time. 

For Granny, family and food were her top priority.  And I have found this to be true for the Irish.  The day after Granny died, I learned that my Irish mother’s husband unexpectantly passed as well.  At the young age of 56, he had a heart attack.  I had been dealing with the grief of my grandmother’s passing fairly well until that point – I had been removed from the realities of death, but suddenly I was looking it straight in the eye.  I walked past the family’s drapery shop to find it closed with a black bow on the door’s handle.  The next day I went to the visitation.  As I paid my condolences to the family for their loss, I thought of nothing but my grandmother.  How I wanted to go home and be at her visitation.  I felt a deep guilt that I could not be there when she had been there for me throughout my entire life.

But since I cannot be home right now, I have decided to experience Ireland in her honor.  I will eat amazing food, have enriching experiences, and try to live life without regret.  As I stroll down the streets of Listowel, I can feel her walking with me, encouraging me to stop in every bakery and try all the different kinds of sweets.  She would love it here. 

 Granny Aileen