My Aunt Nadiene

Manna on the Prairies
Favorite Johnson Family Recipes
Copyrite 1993

"Now I hear you are writing a Master's Thesis. I'd like to know more about it. Is it something you could explain to a person like me?"

I can still hear the cadence of my Aunt's voice when I recall this conversation with her.

As with other conversations with her, she seemed to need no reminders of my age or what I was doing.

She was up-to-date with my life, and interested in learning more.

I felt grown-up when I was around my Aunt Nadiene.

She was born forty years before me, but talked to me in a no-nonsense way.

She spoke to me like I was "my own" person with independent thoughts that she wanted to hear. I felt like she liked me, just as I was.

Tomorrow my son David and I will celebrate one aspect of her life by making a batch of "Oatmeal Cookies - Better than 'Dads'", a recipe she submitted to "The Johnson Family Cook Book - Manna on the Prairies".

I think that would make her smile.

Bonnie