In WayDownSouth, the news of someones passing is on the list of reasons to break out the casserole dishes and the tried and true recipes to fill them. A new baby, discharge after a hospital stay, a new house, on-going medical treatments, caring for a sick loved one...Southern ladies believe in the healing power of a casserole. There is also healing power in a pot of homemade vegetable soup and fresh from the oven pound cakes. If you don't believe me, then you've never experienced the restoration that's found in a steaming hot pan of chicken and rice!
I used to be part of the casserole brigade and then I realized that I'm not the only one who can feed people. There is another way that I can express my occasion appropriate emotions that might be a bit more useful...and much less wasteful. Seriously, having been on the receiving end of such meals, there is only so much chicken and rice one family can eat! What I like to do is take things like paper plates, plastic flatware, napkins, paper towel, Kleenex, toilet paper, paper towel, disposable cups, tea bags and/or coffee. Storage bags, thank you cards, stamps, grossery gift cards....none of this stuff spoils. All of it will be used at some point and can be a bit more handy than eight different versions of strawberry congealed salad.
The first time I ever did this was back in 2001. I was about halfway through my pregnancy with Y2. A dear friend of ours died VERY suddenly. I can't stress just how unexpected his death was. I had just chatted with his wife that morning in Wally World and that very afternoon, he was gone. In fact, between the time I met up with his wife at WW and when MILove and I got home from gallivanting, the call had come in that he had passed. All of two, three hours. It was breath-taking. There was no question that we would be going to the house to see his wife...but the question of what to take bothered me. I didn't want to waste time trying to cook something. We stopped at the grossery store that lay between our house and theirs...I wandered the aisles for a bit...crying. I'm guessing most people chalked it up to my rather obvious pregnancy. I really didn't care. I didn't have any tissues in my purse and the flood gates had opened, so the minute I picked up a box for my own use, the thought occurred to me that my newly widowed friend would need the very same thing...and I was off like a shot.
Some months later, she sent me a note telling me just how much she appreciated what we'd brought and how useful it had truly been. None of it went to waste and she liked the idea so much that she was going to do the same thing when it was her turn to be the one making the house call...for whatever reason. I was so pleased...pleased that our attempt to be a blessing to her would be turned into an opportunity for her to be a blessing to someone else.
I used to be part of the casserole brigade and then I realized that I'm not the only one who can feed people. There is another way that I can express my occasion appropriate emotions that might be a bit more useful...and much less wasteful. Seriously, having been on the receiving end of such meals, there is only so much chicken and rice one family can eat! What I like to do is take things like paper plates, plastic flatware, napkins, paper towel, Kleenex, toilet paper, paper towel, disposable cups, tea bags and/or coffee. Storage bags, thank you cards, stamps, grossery gift cards....none of this stuff spoils. All of it will be used at some point and can be a bit more handy than eight different versions of strawberry congealed salad.
The first time I ever did this was back in 2001. I was about halfway through my pregnancy with Y2. A dear friend of ours died VERY suddenly. I can't stress just how unexpected his death was. I had just chatted with his wife that morning in Wally World and that very afternoon, he was gone. In fact, between the time I met up with his wife at WW and when MILove and I got home from gallivanting, the call had come in that he had passed. All of two, three hours. It was breath-taking. There was no question that we would be going to the house to see his wife...but the question of what to take bothered me. I didn't want to waste time trying to cook something. We stopped at the grossery store that lay between our house and theirs...I wandered the aisles for a bit...crying. I'm guessing most people chalked it up to my rather obvious pregnancy. I really didn't care. I didn't have any tissues in my purse and the flood gates had opened, so the minute I picked up a box for my own use, the thought occurred to me that my newly widowed friend would need the very same thing...and I was off like a shot.
Some months later, she sent me a note telling me just how much she appreciated what we'd brought and how useful it had truly been. None of it went to waste and she liked the idea so much that she was going to do the same thing when it was her turn to be the one making the house call...for whatever reason. I was so pleased...pleased that our attempt to be a blessing to her would be turned into an opportunity for her to be a blessing to someone else.
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