Isn't it odd how an activity will trigger a memory....one that can make you smile!? When I have cereal for breakfast I usually sprinkle on some dried cranberries, some fresh blueberries and about one-third of a banana cut in small pieces. Delish!
About ten or 12 years ago my mother-in-law was visiting. She flew in from Springfield, Massachusetts to spend a few days with us in Bay View. As I've probably stated in previous blogs, I "lucked out" in the mother-in-law department....she was simply the best. As she aged she coped with a variety of physical challenges....but usually with a big smile on her face.
A widow, she lived with macular degeneration for at least the last 20 years of her life.....she adapted well and with her usual optimism. The progress of the eye disease meant that slowly her life changed.....she had to stop doing needlepoint, she had to listen to books on tape instead of curling up with a good read, she had to buy a deck of cards with larger and bolder numbers so she could still enjoy bridge with her friends. She had to sit in the front seat for a movie or a concert....she had to get up very close to identify a friend's face. But she was brave, enthusiastic and enjoyed her life to the fullest.
Anyway - back to bananas. As we stood in the kitchen one morning I was fixing cereal for both of us. And I cut my banana as I always did - peeled it, sliced off a good hunk, then held it sideways in my hand cutting down through the middle in one direction and then made a second cut down the length of the fruit in the opposite direction. I continued to hold the banana now sliced-in-fourths while I cut pieces off the flat end. Maybe a bit hard to picture, but cutting the banana this way meant that each slice provided four small pieces to sprinkle over the cereal. It also meant an increased chance that you'd enjoy a bit of banana in almost every spoonful of cereal.
My mother-in-law was amazed. She'd never thought of that. I can still hear her laugh and appreciate her delight in this small new "method" of cutting up her morning banana. She talked about this for years!
And then I learned one more banana "trick" I wish I could have shared with her. Sometimes, maybe the banana isn't quite ripe enough, it is so hard to get the skin to "open" so you can peel it. I bend and bend the stem with no luck and finally resort to a knife. Well.....I think it was on Facebook....I now open bananas the way the monkeys do. From the stemless end. Works every time.
Mom would have loved this!
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