Death by cookbook

Kiddo#3 saw my copy of the Settlement Cookbook. “Why you have another cookbook?” he asked.

I said that some recipes weren’t in every cookbook, and that this had been Grandma E’s cookbook.

He said, “She gave it to you?”

No, actually, I got it after she died. 

He said, “You took it?”

I said everyone figured she’d want me to have it.

He said, “Did you take it by accident or by deliberately?”

No, I said. She had died, and when people die, they no longer need a cookbook. So everyone got together and decided to give her cookbook to me.

He said, “Did they fight for it? Did they say, ‘No, give it to me’?”

No, really, it was pretty laid back. 

“Was she mad?” he said, and I assured him that Grandma was not mad, that in Heaven you don’t need a cookbook, so she would be fine with me having it.

“Is my grandma still alive?” he said. I answered that yes, she was, and I couldn’t help but add, “And she has a cookbook.

He said, “Then she could make me spaghetti?” and I agreed that she would be able to do this very thing, because she has a cookbook. 

He thought while finishing his lunch. Then he produced this bit of wisdom: If I died, then Daddy would take my cookbook.

I agreed that this was the case. Then he said, “And if Kiddo#2 died, I would take her cookbook. And if Kiddo#4 died…”

It went on from there, him graciously rehoming the cookbooks of the world after the demise of their respective owners, including passing along his own cookbook to his younger brother.

Your takeaway for today:

1) every human being has a cookbook

2) they don’t need cookbooks in Heaven

3) one of the rites of passage involved in dying is giving your cookbook to someone else.

4) His own grandmothers, who are all still living, can use their cookbooks to make him spaghetti.

Any questions?