Mother in Law's

   Our pastor Chris and family were on vacation Sunday and we had a visiting pastor who gave a very good sermon on the book of Ruth. He spoke of her great love for her mother in law Naomi. So many mother in law jokes we hear and most are not nice. I can not relate to them, my mother in law, Don's mother, Louise was so kind and loving to me and I loved her dearly and though she has been gone 41 years I think of her often, perhaps even more often as the years go by. She was a tall women whose black hair had gone to salt and pepper but her brown eyes still had that almost mischievous spark. She loved a good joke or story. Her back ground was French Canadian and as the French are known for their cooking she certainly was. She could make a feast out of anything. As a young bride I stood by her side at the stove hoping that some of that magic would rub off onto me. If she had extras for lunch she would say "we'll put the stretcher's on it" She would cut up the left over roast and potatoes, some onion and a dab of her marvelous gravy and the "stretcher" was some good bread which she tore into small pieces and added it to the skillet. Combined well you never knew the bread was there and it was all so delicious. She told me stories about her mother, Julia, a very proud women who was known for her special cake. Louise said Julia died with the recipe not wanting to share it with anyone not even her daughters. Louise did how ever remember her mother had a large can that sat on the shelf of the cast iron cook stove and she saw her take cookies and cake and grind them fine, dry them and then add them to the can and when she had enough she would make a cake using all the crumbs and her recipe. A cake like no other.
   Louise grew up in the early 1900's when women wore corsets and as a result she had very weak back muscles so she had to wear a more modern version of those corsets. She always wore a dress, nylons and shoes with high heels. She had beautiful legs like a model so why not  show them off. I never saw her in slacks although it was rumored that she wore some on a hunting trip. I did see a photo of her wearing slacks as she rode on the back of Bill's Indian motorcycle when they were young. But I only saw her in a house dresses with crisply ironed aprons. She lived by the old saying "Monday wash, Tuesday iron, etc. and she took great pride in her whiter then white wash that was on the Monday clothes line long before every other housewife in the neighborhood. Each piece was hung just so...no drooping tee shirt or towel on her line. I never could figure how she got them so snow white.
   She and I would play double solitaire a game that she always won because she was so quick and after she  would say "stay for lunch with Bill and I" no way would I refuse.
   Funny how you remember certain things about people, I can still see her hands if I close my eyes. She used to sit in her easy chair watching the show "as the world turns" and embroidering on dish towels or dresser scarves. I had a friend who had access to embroidery thread wholesale and one Christmas I gave her an embroidery case with drawers and every color of threads, she was so happy. After she died at 69 of cancer Bill gave that back to me and things she had embroidered and I was able to share these with her daughters Lorraine and Bernice. Louise was not just a mother in law she was a mother of love.
   A day of remembering, like drops of gold we hide in our hearts that make us truly rich.