A Heartwarming Discovery..

My Mother... wow - it is hard to believe that she has been gone for almost 5 years. I miss her more than words can describe.. She was just amazing in so many ways. I am going to tell you a bit about her..

My Mom was the daughter of 2 immigrants who migrated from Sweden. They could not speak English and had tags about their necks as to where they needed to (in essence) be delivered! My Grandmother was an upstairs maid when she came to America and my Grandfather did odd jobs when they met.

In time my Grandfather, Eric started a pipe fitting company and he married my Grandmother Ruth Alice. Times were good. The company started to grow and after several years of marriage they became pregnant with my Mother..their only child.

Fast forward a few years.. the depression destroyed Eric's company and he was forever a changed man.. Changed for the worse. It embittered him. He sometimes drank and he was at times abusive to my Grandmother and Mother I am sorry to say.. My Mother grew up in fear of her own Father who worked the rest of his life in the steel mills and hated it..

Somehow, my Mom gained strength through it all. When my Grandfather told her it was useless to educate a woman... she paid for her own schooling. When he told her to stay within her class (lower to middle) and she could not date men who were not Swedish... she again gained strength and made her own path.

When my parents met, she was being courted by another young man (now a millionaire). She told me on more than one occasion that the first time she talked to my Father, she knew he was the man she would marry. She was a lab technician. He a Neurosurgeon! I cannot tell you who bragged on whom more when I was a child...my Father on my Mother or vice versa!

She rose above ... her "class", what her Father told her she was and even what some of the other Doctors wives thought of her as well... My Mother was AMAZING.

















She learned how to hold her head up high and to think of her self as who she was..not who others thought she was or where she came from. She learned how to look forward and not back. She learned that it was a gift to get the opportunity to learn new things and when she did, she took hold and did things with all of her might. She could sew Couture gowns. She hosted HUGE dinner parties...and lavishly and lovingly COOKED meals for 20+ guests all by herself...NEVER getting testy with her children in the middle of it all...

Now to get to the point of this post...

Did you get the chance to see this movie? Julie and Julia??
My Mother was a huge Julia Child fan. Many times we watched her cooking show together. My Mom would not just watch it...but take notes! So obviously, she owned the book Mastering the At of French Cooking.. the very same book featured in this movie. Here is my Mother's book..
















..and this is what I found in side her book. It is not only signed by Julie Child, but also her husband Paul!