Giving Back

My grandmother made the sweetest chocolate butter cream Easter eggs I've ever tasted.  I can still remember how biting into one would make my teeth hurt.  Believe me, I like chocolate and at the age of 8, I loved all kinds of candy.  To think there would ever be something that I deemed too sweet to eat is hard to believe.  But for me, the chocolate eggs were too much for my young teeth to handle.

My grandmother didn't feel that way.   

A stroke later in life paralyzed her.  By the time I was in 3rd grade she was living, with her sister, in our house.  Mom Mom spent most of her day in a hospital bed.  Her sister, my great Aunt Mary, took care of her making sure she had food prepared for each meal and company all day long.  Aunt Mary also inherited the duty of making the sweet, chocolate eggs.  

My mother had told me not to give the eggs to my grandmother.  I suppose they were not really included in the diet of a stroke patient.  Even so, it didn't keep my grandmother from asking.

"Won't you get me one of those eggs?" she asked.

I knew I wasn't supposed to, but how do you say no to your grandmother?

I mean I'm sure she gave me all kinds of cookies and sweets against my mother's wishes.  So why not return the favor?


I don't remember a lot about my maternal grandmother as she died when I was only 10 years old.  One thing I do remember is the smile on her face, and the twinkle in her eyes, when she took a bite of that forbidden chocolate Easter egg I smuggled for her.