Food- Hot Tomato soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches

The Minnis and Burgunder families recently lost their matriarch Gramma Tudie.  We all had many fond memories of her in her apron and always ready to feed the masses.  My husband Steve told the story of his brothers and him mounting their horses and riding over to her farm just a few miles away.  It was funny how it would always be near to breakfast time.  Now we are talking about a Midwest farm breakfast.  She was always prepared and willing to cook up a storm.  My own children said that they also remembered always being happy to go over to Grams when we made the plane trip to visit in Michigan.  We would stay in the basement, which was like our own apartment, and Gram would always make hot tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  My grilled cheese sandwiches never looked the same to them.  And don't forget the pies.  Oh, the pies!  There was no matching that when we got home.  I think my children also started measuring the backyard to dig a basement in California.  I guess that would actually be a bomb shelter.

Gramma would also send you things such as a rice/vegetable steamer if you didn't have one in your home when she came to visit.  I got mine and used it for several years, then passed it on to our college bound daughter to use at school.  I remember one visit when I started reading a very nice book by author Jan Karon.  This was the first book in the "At Home in Mitford" series.  I was hooked as my sister-in-law Joyce said that she was also.  Between Grams' and Joyce's books, I ended up taking the next books in the series home with me and mailing them back later.  She also sent me home one trip with a book from her favorite author, Rosamunde Pilcher, called "The End of Summer."  The book was a well worn paperback with the cover and pages all curled up from many years of repeated reading.  I told her that she loved it so much that she should keep it and that I would go find a copy for myself.  She replied, "No honey, you take it.  I liked it so much that I bought the hard copy.  Besides, the print is bigger and I can't read that one anymore."  I didn't really think about it at the time, but she truly wanted to share the wonderful stories that she read with me.  I think that I will be picking that book up and reading it right now as the summer itself is gone and I can transport myself into the warmth of her memories.

We will miss Gramma Tudie with all of our hearts, but we will always remember those fond memories on the farm and afterwards spent just having coffee and pie while shooting the breeze with her.