Dear Reader:

Ever since reading short story writer (George Saunders) graduation speech to the 2013 graduates of Syracuse University… memories of people who performed acts of kindness to myself and family have come flooding back.

Let me give you one example: Growing up in North Carolina our family was blessed to have the most marvelous Lebanese family for neighbors on 500 Huske Street.

On each of their religious (calendar) celebration days…Mrs. Fidel would bake unleavened bread. I remember smelling that wonderful aroma the second I stepped off the school bus in the afternoons. I knew what it meant and my heart skipped a beat.

Without fail on these special days…(about an hour before supper time)…the doorbell would ring and there ( before us…actually below us) would stand tiny Mrs. Fidel, with her tight gray bun and beautiful dark brown eyes smiling back at us… carrying a round tin pan covered with a beautiful linen cloth.

The unleavened bread would be hot from the oven and she would have made her special butter with homemade jam (grown straight from her fig tree in the back yard) smothered inside the hot, steaming oasis of culinary desire.

“You eat supper, now?” she would inquire of mother….though it was actually more of a command. “You eat now…so you can have your bread while warm.”

Mother always said the same thing….”It’s so good we could probably wait and have it for dessert.”

“No…No”….must be eaten while hot” Mrs. Fidel would respond.

Little Mrs. Fidel would push past us and place the bread (always hidden under a beautifully embroidered table napkin) in the center of our table. Mother always tried to return the napkin (scared we would ruin it by spilling dripping butter/fig jam on it) but Mrs. Fidel would shake her head and quickly scurry out the door yelling…”Eat NOW…while hot!”

Of course the reason why Mrs. Fidel wouldn’t let mother return the embroidered napkins was because each one was hand- stitched by Mrs.Fidel for mother as a gift)…By Christmas that first year…there were four of these beautiful napkins …light blue with a star in the middle of the linen.

It soon became a tradition that right before Christmas she would come set our table for the holidays with a beautiful Christmas center piece (she had made from natural items in the woods near our home) and added a  candle…every year this continued until we moved right before my 14th birthday to South Carolina.

I don’t think anyone cried harder at our departure than Mrs. Fidel… besides all of us crying at leaving the wonderful Mrs. Fidel and her “magic” bread.

That first Christmas in Laurens we pulled out her hand-made napkins and set the Christmas table with our own greenery arrangement but we knew no one or nothing could provide the unleavened bread and its aroma symbolizing kindness and friendship. Only Mrs. Fidel.

Then about a week before Christmas….a package arrived from Mrs. Fidel…the unleavened bread had been carefully wrapped and placed in  a beautiful tin pan with four new embroidered linen napkins for our first Christmas away.

She had mixed her special butter and fig jam together in a jar made to preserve it….and that night when we warmed the bread and added the butter/figs suddenly Christmas felt like Christmas again.

That was the first and last package we received….the next year we only got a card from her daughter saying that her mother had passed away suddenly from a heart attack earlier in the year… she knew we would want to know.  Her mother had finished one linen Christmas napkin for us at the time of her death and she was sending it also.

When it arrived it was different from all the other napkins….there were five yellow stars stitched against a dark blue colored napkin… aligned in the shape of a smile. Frieda, her daughter, had written that four of the stars represented us and the fifth star was her mother…since she always felt a part of our family.

Somehow, over the years of moving, the box containing Mrs. Fidel’s napkins disappeared…but the joy they brought each Christmas remains in my childhood memory…shining brightly with a smile.

I can’t cook…but I hope by sharing a little piece of my garden with family, friends and neighbors ( in a little mason jar) that perhaps one day….someone will remember that a woman (with the strange name of “Boo”) once lived in my house…and she  gave out mason jars of colorful/joyful flowers.)

Anne and I went to visit Winnie Harris, a member of our congregation (and  Mike Burrell’s mom) at the Presbyterian Village yesterday. She moved in a few weeks ago and she wanted us to come see her new home…we loved it!)

Anne took homemade muffins and I took a “Boo’s Garden” mason jar filled with roses off my newest rose bush. We had a great time catching up …and hopefully I can continue to fill Winnie’s little jar with fresh flowers from the garden as they bloom upon each visit.

So until tomorrow….Remind us Father that one little act of kindness can last a lifetime through the memories of its recipients…a memory to keep us warm on cold nights and dark days.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I love this comment from Mev Schieder concerning living in the moment…even experiencing a lifetime in such a moment.

Becky, when Jimmy’s doctor said “Stage 4, lung cancer metastasized to bones, liver and adrenal glands, one year survival,” that became a life-defining moment–is it all about dying or is it all about living?

Well, as I watch him on the tractor in the field behind our house (one of his happy places!), I celebrate his (our) answer to that question! And I celebrate our Shieder Strong motto, our hundreds of prayer warriors, and our wonderful doctors. I celebrate TODAY! And I praise God for it all!

Amen Mev…perfectly stated! Thank you for sharing!

A few years ago…the idea of a perfect place or happy place from our childhood memories entered the Sunday School discussion and I remember Don Alexander sharing this special place with us…he remembered it too and said:

Becky- Don here. You were on my mind in a big way yesterday. I was thinking about our Sunday School conversation where I made the comment “Every boy needs a creek.” I have so many fond memories of playing in the creek…I guess that was my happy place.

What is it about a babbling brook…a secret creek (at least to us) that perpetuates the memories of a lifetime? Peace…Peace…!

Please keep Betsy in your prayers today that the surgery goes perfectly according to plan and then some….this sweet young mom is anxious for all of this to be over and to get back home with hubby and her two precious girls!  “Return to Normalcy” is her motto.

*Don’t forget Betsy…Hold God’s Hand! He has a great grip! I know! P.S. And He never sleeps so He will be there at 5:45 this morning when the surgery begins!

* Mandy shared some photos from Jakie’s last year’s (end of the year) pre-school  “old-timey” day. Too cute! I do believe Jakie with be the man in the hat….growing up! Quite debonair little man!