COMING TOGETHER--33

Mom decided to make an angel food cake for my Bible study. I thought it was silly, as if I or she owed the group anything. But then an email from my sister Nancy convinced me that this would be a good project for Mom.

So she couldn't find her cookbook. I went to WalMart to get some ingredients and search the internet for a recipe. I found one and Mom is in the kitchen acting like she was 30 years younger. This gives her something to do, and that has been missing in her life for the last few years.

She has the radio on a top-40 station, she's cracking eggs, pouring extract, twirling flour in a bowl and doing what she probably did 50 years ago. I think she might be happy. But what is extract of tartar? You know how hard it is to find that? It was like finding Dr. Livingstone in the jungle. But with the help of two employees I found it.

The angel food cake was a fiasco. It tasted like lemony sheetrock. It fell and I'm glad. I put too much cream of tartar in it. The cream burst through the top of the cake like a volcano erupting.

Then Mom was tired of being with me. When she tires of my matter-of-fact ways, she does things to offend me intentionally. It's her way of shoving me away. So we disagreed about whether she could drive her car. So I said, 'Fine. Drive it, see if you can.'

She drove, with me in the passenger seat. She nearly broke some guy's leg. That convinced her that she cannot drive any more. We did not speak for a couple of hours. Then Mom realized she had not done the right thing, so gradually we made up. We walked around the apartment property, grudgingly talking out our desire to get along and forgive.

She admitted that she should have listened to me and I said it was all right, just another day in Paradise. My brother's daughter and granddaughter are coming over in an hour. This is just what Mom needs. I need to back out of her day.

Tonight is my Bible study and I need it to get away.