Ten-Finger Exercises

zucchini bread and thou

Finally, I got three loaves of zucchini bread made. I've been planning this for what, three years now? Two years ago I realized I couldn't find my loaf pans and bought some, but never used them. Last year I decided I should have foil pans so I could give them away, my intention in the first place, so I bought some. Didn't use them.

In the meantime I had as a patient an irascible lady who could be described as a "tough old bird." She had been a bartender for many years, had remodeled her turn-of-the- century farmhouse to make it very comfortable and usable, and didn't want to ever lose her independence. She had caregivers for part of each day, and they shopped for her and helped her get out the ingredients to cook up the meals she considered herself famous for. She was losing her eyesight, as well as her mobility, and had taken the precaution of having caregivers write the recipes with large felt tip pens so she would still be able to read them.

I remember blogging about her before, because intermixed with the recipes she wanted to organize were xeroxes of visual humor she hung behind the bar, usually pretty funny but always a bit raunchy. When we came to her zucchini bread recipe she not only raved about it but insisted I make a copy for myself. So, in Marian's memory, I baked zucchini bread.

The nurse who took care of her was pregnant, and Marian was a stickler about locking her doors, with more than one lock at that. Her caregivers had keys and they locked her in as they left each day, but she did not give a key to hospice. (It would have been too difficult to make sure one was available for each team member an on call staff who visited her.) Instead we ordered a key box for her to leave a key in. Before it came, however, we had instructions of how to raise one almost painted shut window in the guest bedroom and crawl through it, then proceed into her bedroom and the rest of the house. This was only for emergencies. We all wondered how the pregnant nurse would make it through, or me either for that matter, being big and not agile.

The nurse found out several months before the baby was due that it had multiple defects, including a two chambered heart, and probably would not live. I may not have blogged about this before, but it was tragic. It was her first baby, and she and her husband are both in their late thirties. The infant, Bethany, lived a couple of weeks, and the nurse has not returned to her job. She has also not said that she wouldn't, as far as I know. Anyway, I'm taking her a loaf of Marian's zucchini bread, because she got such a kick out of Marian.