Four Raspberry Tarts

Four Raspberry Tarts

While walking the dogs this morning I passed by our backdoor neighbors newly installed deck.  Jeannine was outside admiring a coy pond that she had installed herself to compliment the deck. As I looked over the fence and said “Hello”, she greeted me back and we began to talk.  Jeannine had lost her husband a few years ago and now it’s Jeannine and her two children, ages 5 and 7. 

As part of my widows and single-mothers program I had been giving Jeannine a loaf of my Grandpa Hyde’s Multi-Grain Bread  (Best Bread Known to Man) every time I bake, but the last two months have been a little hectic and I had not been able to get a loaf of bread over to her.  

As we talked she asked me how we liked the pies.  Pies I thought? I didn’t recall any pies, and then I remembered that someone had brought over four delicious raspberry tarts just a few days after my wife Sharon had dislocated her hip.  After her dislocation, we had many visitors bringing over cards, food and well wishes; people from the neighborhood, from the church, friends, and relatives.  I was not at home when the tarts were delivered, and Sharon could not remember who had given them to her.  I checked with the neighbors, “Did you bring us over four raspberry tarts for Sharon?; the Relief Society, our visiting teachers, our home teachers, most everyone I ran into or could think of I asked, but the answer was always the same, “No, we didn’t do it”.  And no one seemed to know who had done it, they all had suggestions, but after I followed through there was still no lead as to who had brought over those delicious tarts.

When Jeannine asked me if we had enjoyed the pies, it all came together.  I asked Jeannine how she had known about Sharon’s hip dislocation.  She gave me a puzzled look and said that she didn’t know anything like that had happened to Sharon and expressed her concern and asked if she was doing OK now.  As for the pies she said her children wanted to give “the bread man” something to thank him for bringing them over a loaf of bread every week and they had decided that the tarts would make a good gift.

What a kind gesture that was, and what an opportune time it was in our lives for the delivery.  Often times we do things with no expectation of getting anything in return, but when there is some expression of thanks given it makes the gesture doubly appreciated.  This particular offering of the four raspberry tarts was given at a truly random time which coincided exactly at a time when both Sharon and I needed it most, both emotionally and physically.  

Thank you Jeannine for such a wonderful thought and gift.

Gratitude is contagious; pass it on!

Gary Hyde
Aug 11, 2013