Tuesday, April 15, 2008

This time of year



When my daughter was three, she would ask her new friends-are you Christmas or Hannukah?

So, just to get this out of the way, I am Passover, not Easter.

Here is a photograph of me on the eve of my first Passover of '69. I am watching my Grandpa (whose library back then was already formidable) preparing a mixture of apples, ground nuts, wine and cinnamon which is called "haroset", and which I find addictive to this day.

My Grandma is not in the photo because she was very, very busy. She was very, very busy:
  • Packing up her entire kitchen into boxes (including the entire pantry)
  • Moving the boxes to the basement
  • Cleaning the entire kitchen meticulously
  • Lining every shelf, cupboard and counter with plastic sheeting (the table I'm sitting on is already covered, as you can see)
  • Bringing up boxes labelled "Passover" from the basement
  • Unpacking an entirely new kitchen from these boxes. This included two sets of cutlery and crockery (one for meaty, one for milky), two sets of pots and pans (ditto), and a huge assortment of cake-pans, and a mix-master
  • Going to the "kosher shop" and buying a huge amount of foodstuffs all labelled "kosher for Passover"
  • Coming home and placing everything in the newly-lined pantry
  • Cooking a three-course meal for 30 relatives
  • Baking a huge amount of flourless cakes, which all rose beautifully (I know, I have no idea either), were delicious, and were given to the relatives to take home and enjoy the next day

I am sitting now on my bed writing this, still in my pyjamas (unlike Kim who apparently blogs in the nude, hehe), and wondering where I stand this Passover. How much energy do I have? Is my faith strong enough to move entire kitchens? I'm afraid that, this year, the answer may be no.

But I do miss my Grandma. Very, very much.

6 comments:

RW said...

I am always amazed at the fortitude of the woman who have gone before us.

RW said...

women - plural - that is.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother was born in 1901 on the Faroe Islands, Denmark, and came to Canada at the age of 20. She had this same kind of unstopable energy and such an amazing heart well into her nineties. How I loved her, and miss her, always.
ErinH

blackbird said...

I could never manage that kind of devotion either. I do admire it tremendously.

Kim does EVERYTHING in the nude.

KPB said...

I've just got off the phone from my Jewish step-mother who is jumping out of her skin as her Jewish best friend from Melbourne is coming for Passover - her own daughters are not interested. It breaks her heart.

I'm too pissy to read your email about being down at The Wharf. Tomorrow.

KPB said...

And Blackbird's right.