Elaine

My MSF mission will conclude earlier than expected, but at the right time for me.

In my “backyard”, my home, my mother-in-law, the best in the West mother-in-law, is dying of cancer, and it is good, it is right that I depart a bit early and come to sit by her side, to tell her stories, to listen to her stories, of which she has no lack. This is a time of choice for me, and some choices are easy and good.
All of my inner voices say, “Go Home, Be With Your People.”

We have known Elaine’s life-end was out there, maybe a year or two. Now that end is closer , probably weeks, as cancer often surprises us it with its fits and starts then its finality. Cancer for Elaine has been one of those things that she had for several years, now the cancer has her. She and the cancer have traded places in the role of who will lead. Like other aspects of her long life, she has taken charge, and has given her willfulness and her unique “Elaineness” to this burden. She is pragmatic and reasonable. She is direct and resolute. She is an inspiration to many, many of the people that surround her.

I will miss her cranberry jelly, and so I must hurry home to make sure I have the recipe written down correctly. It is a family recipe. It is in her head and hands. There is a copy in my recipe file written by Dolly, Elaine’s mother-in-law, but it is no longer readable having been splattered with the boiling cranberries. The few times I have tried to make it “Like Lanie Does” I always have to repeat, “ how much sugar do I put, and how long should the rolling boil last, stirring all the while?” ( “I recall “stirring all the while” are the exact words on the recipe)

We have traditions to keep, Pritchett and Hillyer, Harper and Wilson legacies that carry onward only if we listen and learn and pass them down to Our People. There are many traditions that Elaine has carried on behalf of her ancestors, both from her family and from her husbands family. She collected precious “treasures“, stories and recipes and memories. Each of us will get to choose in these coming weeks which treasures we want to keep from Elaine. Which gifts I will choose to carry onward from the enormous pile of gifts? Which treasures that I have carried will my children carry onward?.
Some treasures will be kept by Elaine only, they are not ours, they are her special secrets and stories that will join her in eternity. But she will no doubt eagerly and generously give us treasures, if we choose.

I look forward to these days and weeks ahead, the good ones, the tough ones.

I will complete my writings about Abkhazia soon. My journal is full of more stories, more images, more emotions. I’ll share a few more before I close the Abkhazia Adventures.

While I prepare to say “Farewell” to the people who have opened their homes, their lives, to me over these past months, I will savor the best: The Black Sea, the constant that has brought daily nourishment, the little canal with the peach streetlight reflecting into its varying ripples and waves depending on the weather. The clang of the metal door closing as I enter the MSF compound. The oscillation of the fan cooling me at night, the morning birds that awaken me, the moaning water pump that is heard every time the sink faucet turns on, the squeaking pulley on the clothesline, the hustle-bustle at the market……the laughs and grumps of Inga, LaLa and Olga…..the smiles of Shamile and Zurab…and then there is Sveta, I will give her an apron that I had engraved, it says “CHEF SVETA” displayed right in the middle of the breast…..I hope she likes it…… and on and on……..

Thank for listening, for being a reason for me to write, even though you have only read a small portion of what has been written, it is enough, I’m sure.

Till later, genie