Cooking With Friends for the Grieving

Last week I received an e-mail from Jo, a loyal CWF member, who shared a sad piece of local news about a devoted mother of three young children who unexpectedly passed away. This unthinkable tragedy left the family in disarray, as the husband must pick up the pieces while working to support his family. One of things he is struggling with is providing meals for his family. It’s a hard enough task for a healthy frazzled mother of three, never mind a grieving, hardworking husband and father. Well, we can relate.

Jo wrote to me in the hopes that, (in her words,) the “lovely CWF crowd” would band together to help this family. In her e-mail, Jo talks about “people using their primal instincts” to help others going through a horrible time. She hit on one of the most powerful reasons to cook with friends — to help those in need.

Throughout the Cooking With Friends community, people are cooking together for those going through tough times. A few weeks ago, I cooked with Liz and Christina for a friend (and mother of two boys) who just had a medical scare and before that, we cooked for another friend who was recovering from surgery and literally couldn’t get on her feet to cook dinner.

While we sautéed our onions and garlic for a big batch of tomato sauce, assembled baked ziti and molded meatballs, we talked about why we were cooking together. During our few hours together, the simple act of cooking for someone else brought us together, giving us a way to digest what our friend must have been going through. Jo was right — our primal instincts kicked in.

Jo’s request was for us to help this grieving family by creating a meal schedule and providing dinner. I, for one, am looking forward to helping””while spending time with my friends. Will you join me?
If anyone else in the NJ community is interested in helping this family, please e-mail me off line: ajbermack@verizon.net.