“Not long after she turned 39, she left me and our three teens to go Home. This happened a few days before Thanksgiving.”
I've written what I consider to be some fairly funny stuff for Graceland's "Christmas Celebration" in the past. I wrote "Busted By The Claus" and "The Big Fat Guy". These pieces (among others) are still worth the journey back in time to visit, so feel free!
This is story is different. First, you'll need a little background. My first wife, Joyce, and I met when I was sixteen and she was fifteen. There was never anyone else in our lives except each other from that moment on. We married, brought three great kids into the world and believed we'd grow old and die together.
Well, life is what happens when one is making other plans. At the age of 24, she was diagnosed with diabetes. Not long after she turned 39, she left me and our three teens to go Home. This happened a few days before Thanksgiving. Perhaps you can imagine how lonely Thanksgiving was for us that year. It was a pretty devastating time. We often held on to life by hanging on to each other and the Lord.
Christmas came soon after Thanksgiving. None of us had the heart to deal with gifts, decorations, singing, etc. As the holidays drew close, Kathi and I discussed what we could do to make it seem kinda normal. We decided to make some homemade bread. The smell of baking bread appealed to us. It seemed good to make some healthful bread. We found one of Joyce's recipes. My job was to get all the ingredients together.
I went to a nearby health food store and asked for some yeast. The recipe clearly called for fresh yeast. The lady scooped up some yeast, put it in a brown bag and sent me on my way.
One Friday after school, Kathi and I began mixing the dough. We followed the instructions very carefully. We set the dough aside and waited for it to rise. After several hours, nothing happened. We turned on the oven ever so low and put the mixing bowl in the opening, with the door open. It was fairly chilly for Florida, and we figured that maybe the kitchen was just too cool to do the job.
Still, nothing happened! Well, we finally formed the dough into several loaves. We set them aside until Saturday in a warm place. Not any bigger on Saturday. We thought that maybe the raising process would take place during the early part of the baking procedure. Alas and alack. When the allotted time was gone, we lifted our loaves of bread out of the oven. They were the same size as when we put them in. They were hard as a brick! Not at all what we'd hoped for. They did break some of the tension for us. We laughed and laughed.
I was teaching a parenting class at our church. The next day, I showed up to teach my class. I figured maybe some lady in the class would be able to help me figure out what we'd done wrong. She asked me specifically about the yeast. I explained what I'd done. She then asked me to describe the yeast. I told her that it was in flake form, nice looking and fresh.
She chuckled and explained what happened. I'd not told the clerk that I wanted baking yeast. She sold me brewer's yeast. Now, folks put brewer's yeast in their orange juice, and sprinkle it on their cereal. HOWEVER, they never ever try to bake bread with brewer's yeast.
Going through the death of a loved one is never "convenient". It's especially tough at holiday time. No matter when someone dies, special occasions are pretty difficult, especially the first anniversary of special days. I encourage you to look around this time of year and reach out to any whom the Lord brings to your attention.
Jerry Meyer AKA PapaJ, past away June 21, 2005. He got an early Christmas present. Miss you bunches, Jerry!—Grant