The Last Thanksgiving

As I have gotten older I realized more and more that holidays are about families. After my wife and I married, I quickly became used to her family's tradition of gathering together on special holidays and on other occasions. In her family, holidays and family birthdays are days that the extended family joins together in food and fellowship.

The driving force behind this family tradition and also the glue that held the family so closely together was my mother-in-law. Everyone in the family calls her Grandma. She loved her extended family and loved having all of them under one roof - eating, talking, and laughing. It was the opportunity to have her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all of their spouses, partners along their children together. Grandma loved everyone and everyone loved Grandma. She was a quiet woman that somehow made an impact on her family and all of her friends.

One thing you have to understand about Grandma is that she grew up dirt poor in the South. So she knew how to stretch food to feed as many people as were there to ready to eat. So, the more people who showed up at these gatherings all the better. She would find a way to find everyone something to eat - even if it meant that she did without food herself. She grew up in a time when you did not buy loaf bread. Instead, you made homemade biscuits every day. Biscuits were an everyday thing in her home. You might not have much else to eat but you always had biscuits.

Another thing you need to know about Grandma is that she made the best dressing in the world. If you don't believe me, just ask any of her children or grandchildren. I am not sure what she did that made her dressing different but it was different from anyone else's dressing. Everyone in the family was happy when Thanksgiving came because Grandma would be making her dressing and gravy. When the family members had opportunities to eat turkey and dressing cooked by someone else, they were never quite happy. They could not help comparing it to Grandma's dressing and the other dressing was just not Grandma's dressing.

This year Thanksgiving will be much different. The driving force behind regularly meeting together and the glue that held the family so closely together is no longer here. Last December at the age of 90, the matriarch of the family passed away. What a great loss this was to the family! So the question is, What will Thanksgiving look like this year? It will be more difficult to get everyone to meet without Grandma. She was the primary reason for the tradition. The family is still close but is this enough without her? Where is the incentive to gather together for Thanksgiving without Grandma's dressing? Only time will tell. One thing for sure is that even if the extended family does meet together, Thanksgiving will never be the same again without Grandma and her dressing.