Cucumbers

Hello!

I love cucumbers! I especially craved them during my first pregnancy but it's my second child, my little monkey-boy, who loves them about as much as I do. He's a picky eater but loves to fill his plate with cucumber slices and arrange them like a happy face. So we buy cucumbers all the time. But for some reason, today when I picked up cucumbers at the market they reminded me of my Grandpa. There are lots of greenhouses where I grew up and Grandpa would often bring us bags of skinny, irregular shaped cucumbers when he came to visit. They tasted even better than the ones that looked perfect! He didn't like tomatoes even though he lived in Leamington, the Tomato Capital of Canada. The Heinz factory made it's famous ketchup and the tourist information booth looked like a giant tomato but for my Grandpa it was always cucumbers.

Big cucumbers with lots of seeds are always available where we live here in the Dominican Republic. People use them (along with my Grandpa's awful tomatoes) on top of lettuce and cabbage to make a simple green salad they call "ensalada mixta" or "mixed salad." But certain times of the year we can get smaller, skinny ones that, today, reminded me of Grandpa's.

My Grandpa died two years ago and, while he is remembered for much more than cucumbers, it was cucumbers today that reminded me of the blessing he was in my life. I'm so thankful for the time I was able to spend with him.

Thank you, Lord, for my Grandpa and for his home in heaven with you. Thank you that I'll be able to see him again someday!

Marcie Cooper