This coming Friday, 25 November, it will be a year since Damian’s passing – a very difficult time indeed for Paul, Dale and myself – time to bake ‘Memory Bread’.
I was introduced to Memory Bread by Helena Nell, journalist and lunch guest at Old Joe’s Kaia. She forwarded this interesting ritual from The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell to me:
“My mother used to make it when I was a child, and it's called that because when you have a piece, you're supposed to remember something important. It can be from your childhood. It can be from any time or anywhere. So I thought we'd drink a toast and eat some bread and remember what we've been through and who we were, because it's also who we are."
So how does one make a Memory Bread?
Simply mix your favourite bread dough (or buy ready-mixed from the local bakery), roll it out into an oblong and spread all your ‘memories’ down the middle, then plait the sides over to enclose them…
"Memories are like what you find in the kitchen, she said, all these dribs and drabs in drawers and dark cupboards, bits and pieces that seem extraneous or even bad…"
So what shall we put in Damian’s Memory Bread?
Dead-fried eggs, crispy bacon, Fun & Happiness, Lentil and Mushroom Soup …and welding rods… How can we ever forget…?www.oldjoes.co.za
3 comments:
I think this is a brilliant way to celebrate Damian's life. If there is one thing our family understands its food, and I think its very fitting to bake this bread at this difficult time of year, where we are both miss the members of our family who have left us but remember their time in our lives... Thanksgiving is celebrated in America today- very fitting!
Memory bread, lighting a candle - a wonderful way to remember and bless the special time we knew with those special souls no longer with us in human form - those caterpillars of Earth who are now butterflies of the Universe (as John Harricharan calls them). It is going to be a very beautiful bread ...
As we pass through this world we come an ago, leaving memories as footprints on the lives of others.
On occasion we look at these footprints and recall moments that passed as ripples in time. Some made clear singular waves, some joined with others in wonderful harmonies.
We recall Damian for both the uniquely beautiful patterns he left and the delightful harmonies still ringing clearly in our ears.
I love the idea of the Memory Bread! Bread is so unpretentious and yet so profound. Bread compliments, emphasizes, adds substance, or delights in its wholesomeness.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving today with gratefulness in our hearths that we have so much more than we need, we also recall with special fondness footprints made by a delightful young Damien. We are so much more because he passed through our lives!
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