Funny the domino effect of things.
Or whatever it is.
Yesterday I read Rona Maynard’s musings and reflections on ice cream. Today the stuff is everywhere I go. On CBC this morning with Matt Galloway. On the side of the semi that pulls out in front of me and makes me say bad words as enormous tubs of vanilla, cherry, chocolate, pecan-swirl momentarily tower over me—I can’t remember the brand.
And, oh look, there it is again on a sign
that I’ve probably passed ten or twenty thousand times on my way to the place where I buy happy meat and eggs and the best butter tarts I’ve ever tasted—but I’ve never noticed the great honking strawberry cone before.
Most bizarrely of all, it’s in my mum’s fridge.
Three individual servings of vanilla and butterscotch, untouched and melting. So instead of making the usual oatmeal or toast for her breakfast, which has been getting little or no reaction recently, I pour the ice cream into her coffee, then pour some more over canned peaches.
She laps it up, asks for seconds.
She’s almost ninety. What can it hurt?
A recent stroke has left her unable to do much for herself and this gets her down—everyone ‘doing’ for her, helping her dress and wash, preparing meals. She recently stopped enjoying food entirely, so when I see her licking her fingers, everything makes sense, the semi, Matt Galloway, Rona Maynard—it occurs to me there’s a message in all these ice cream sightings—ie. life is too bleeping short for oatmeal every morning—at least give the poor woman a dollop of coffee toffee mocha crunch with it…
And of course it makes complete and perfect sense.
Funny indeed how these things work.
~
Matilda Magtree 
a. I’ve been to Hy-Hope farm in Pickering. Great spot for pies.
b. I’ve been where you are with you mum. Torn between what is supposed to be good for health, and what mum would prefer. It’s hard on everyone.
Yes, Hy Hope is amazing. Lovely story too, the history of the place–starting with fresh baked pies on a folding table at the side of road in 1980. The eggs are incredible too, from their own chickens.
As for my mum… that’s just it, there’s no more dilemma about meals. Given what little control she has over anything else at this point, I intend to give her whatever she likes, including ice cream for breakfast –why didn’t I think of it before??