A time for comfort

This weekend Grandma Mary's father died. We spent a little time with her and other than that we stayed close to home. The wind was out of our sails somewhat but we got lots of things around the house.

We went to Sweet Frog. In addition to replacing juice with water we have pretty much moved away from ice cream and into frozen yogurt. In this way I can fool a part of myself into believing that our massive sugar intake is somehow beneficial.

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We went to the playground.

We played Superman.

We saw Scearces'.

We made fried green tomatoes to feed our comfort food hunger. 

These actually turned out great. This is the best batch I have ever made. When we were at Scearce's place Kathryn's mom offered me a whole bag of green tomatoes and I fried up every single one of them.

They were very beautiful.  This jewel like chartreuse pile of leftover summer gave me some peace.

Also they were delicious. I ate tons and Megan really seemed to like them once they cooled down. We brought a few to Mary the next morning. I was glad to have something homey and personal to bring her.

When we got to my Dad and Mary's place I asked Kiernan to say "I am sorry your dad died". He agreed to do that all the way up to the door and then told me that he would not say it. He was not sorry. He didn't do anything wrong. I started to tell him about sorry for apology vs sorry for sympathy but then the door opened and it was too late.

 By the time we were in the living room he had become a confused mute boy who only wanted to play and not to deal with sorrow or etiquette. 

We are working on it.

Once the memorial service happens I will put up a more dedicated post but I just wanted to share my favorite picture of him. When I was little we always called Mary's parents Mommy and Poppy and when I got older I simply referred to them as Abuela and Abuelo.

When I was in college one year we took a spring break in Miami. I was so happy to be among Cuban food and with family who loved to hug and feed me.

My Abeulo was loud and gruff and loved to tease. This is my favorite picture of him. In it he is threatening me for some unremembered hilarious infraction. You cannot see it but there is an alligator behind him in the water.