Recent family issues have prevented me from writing lately about our Celebration of Life. Our little family is approaching the 2 year mark of losing the kids’ father, my husband. All the girls, the boys, his mother, step father and I all grieved at different times and in different ways. Since loss and grief are strange monsters that haunt people on different time frames, the family split & everyone went off in their own worlds.
So, instead of writing about how my oldest son is just now starting to grieve, or about how the family is just getting acquainted with each other again; I’ll write of the good memories that should never fade away because they are our Celebration of Life .
I, being the butt of most jokes, made for some great comedic material for Nick to discuss with his friends, co-workers, and family.
Almost 16 yrs ago, I was pregnant with my first child. Learning to cook was so exciting for me. On one special spring day, I decided I would make homefries.
(For anyone who doesn’t know what homefries are; a 3 quart pot of oil is heated on a stove and sliced potatoes cut into long slivers are lowered into the oil until they are golden brown. Then the potatoes are lifted out of the oil and placed on a plate to drain the excess oil from them. Uhm, they are Yummy. Lightly salt the fries while they are still wet with oil and you have a very tasty treat!)
So, back to the event. I had lowered some cut up potatoe slivers into the oil, but the oil was too hot. The oil boiled over the pot and made contact with the stove eye. Needless to say, a fire errupted. I immediately grabbed the salt…then hesitated. I ran a huge pitcher full of water…then hesitated. I stood there thinking, “Now, which is it? Salt for electrical fires or water?”
Nick (my deceased husband) was outside mowing the yard & couldn’t hear me pecking on the window. I left the blazing kitchen and called my mom. When she answered I asked her which was better, salt or water for the fire. She said, “What? Surely I didn’t hear you right, …Chrissy?” I declared I didn’t have time to talk anymore cause the flames where getting to hot & I dropped the phone. I sware, pregnancy made me lose some valuable brain cells (which have led to a glorious Celebration of Life)!! I proceeded to the kitchen where I started fanning the fire!!! That wasn’t smartly thought out. The stove, wall and now ceiling were ablaze and I was still holding water in one hand and salt in the other.
What I couldn’t see was how funny it all appeared to my family. First my mom ran across the road, stopped to waive her arms in the air to signify help to Nick. Nick thought it was amazing my mom was being so nice to waive at him and kept on his path mowing the yard. Then my dad came running across the yard, stopped, began waiving his arms in the air at Nick also. Nick waived back and thought something weird was up possibly. Last, my brother came running across the street in nothing but his underware, waiving his arms at Nick. Nick knew something definitely must have happened at that point. He turned the riding mower off and ran inside the house.
Meanwhile, when my Mom came in the house, I showed her the flaming kitchen and said, “salt or water?” She screamed at the top of her lungs for my dad – queue dad running across the yard. Mom grabbed me and took me out of the smoke filled house. Dad, my underware wearing brother, and Nick put the fire out.
After everyone calmed down, Nick said, “Chrissy, why the he** are you holding water and salt??” I replied, “Cause when I remember which one to use, I’m gonna put that fire out, that’s why!!! Problem is, no one will answer my question!!”
At that point, I was pretty angry with everyone, but…they were all laughing to hard to answer me! I finally realized how silly I must have sounded, chalked this experience up to another Celebration of Life, hung my head low and just went to bed for the evening.
This is one reason I don’t cook!
By the way, did you know the water macaroni noodles are cooked in is extremely flammable? That’s another story for another day in our Celebration of Life 🙂
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