For Mother’s Day, I wish I had a big bread story to tell you about my mom but I don’t, not really. She loved bread, yes, especially the crusty ones, but she wasn’t overly picky about it. Her favorite was the baguette, which she liked bien cuite (baked to a deep gold brown) and the part she liked best of all was le quignon (the heel). Towards the end of her life, when we took her out to lunch to her favorite restaurant near her nursing home in Paris, the owner always brought a basketful of quignons to the table together with the menus. Since most people didn’t care for them, they usually didn’t serve them but when they saw my mom coming, they sliced off the ends of a bunch of baguettes just for her.
During her last few months, quignons and dessert were pretty much what she lived on: she had lost her appetite for everything else. But from the way her eyes lit up when the basket was set in front of her, we could see that the very frail person sitting among us was the same mother who, in her youth, had presided over the dinner table, slicing up the baguette on the same board and with the same knife I now use myself, distributing slices to children and keeping the heels for herself and for my Dad (also a huge fan of crunchiness). Of course as we grew up, some of us developed a taste for quignons as well (probably, a genetic trait!) and the mathematics of baguette dividing became a little more complex…
This Mother’s Day, I wish I could bake her a bouquet of baguettes and make her a dark chocolate mousse (her mousses au chocolat were the stuff of legend). But she passed away four years ago in March. For the life of me I couldn’t tell you the exact date. I go back to the calendar to be reminded but the information never sticks as if part of me didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that on a specific day, she indeed ceased to be.
It could be because, in fact, she never did. Not for me. I can’t bake for her, that’s true, but she is still very much alive. She can still make me laugh, albeit sometimes unwittingly (as she used to), and I can still see her shaking her head at me and wondering how on earth she could have had such a daughter…
Moms are forever. Happy Mother’s Day!
Simply beautiful….
her photo is stunning, you can almost imagine her thoughts….
Happy Mother's Day to you too, I don't know for how long I will have my Mom around, but the "around" is thousands of miles away, which is not always easy to deal with
c'est la vie…
I know, c'est la vie but it's hard to be so far away… I lived through that as well. What I did is that I called my mom every day, always at the same time. It was not as good as being there physically but it was a strong bond and we both cherished it.
Beautiful!
🙂 Thinking of all the moms we both know and love…
Cara MC, tanti cari auguri per la festa della mamma a te ed allo straordinario ricordo filiare che hai sempre per la tua cara mamma e per tutto ciò che lei ha saputo rappresentare nella tua vita e nel tuo cuore.
Il mio augurio tramite te va a tutte le mamme che passeranno da qui a trovarti.
Un abbraccio Anna Giordani
Thank you so much, Anna!
Quelle belles paroles, very moving MC.
And what a beautiful picture you posted, this is pure love.
Merci
Have a nice day
Lou
Merci, Lou!
Happy Mothers Day to you MC and all Mothers around the world. I am unable to wish my Mother as she is too ill to understand at this point in time but my prayers are with her every moment I think of her. God Bless you.
So sorry to hear that, Monique. My thoughts will be with you and her in this difficult time. I hope she gets better soon and you can tell her in person how much she means to you. Sending you my very best wishes for her prompt return to health.
Hi MC,
Always the perfect words to paint such a vivid picture of what is intangible yet so much more 'real' than things that are tangible. My mother passed on when I was quite young and before I became a mother. I have to admit that I didn't really appreciate all that she was until I had children of my own. It is remarkable that I feel her presence and strength more now than I did when she was alive, so as you say, she is still very much alive and somehow lives through me – if that makes sense…
Thanks for sharing again!
Take Care,
JanetH
Thanks for sharing that nice story and photo of your mother. I wonder whether there is some distant common ancestor in our family trees? I always went for heel of the bread (or roast), the crispier the better 🙂
I love the heel of the roast too. We are definitely related… 😉