Feasting for the departed

I’ve never had to deal with death so up-close. Either I’ve been too little or I’ve been away from home to play any sort of role in family funerals. It’s only a week back that I've actually had to come to terms with a death at home. It can leave you feeling quite helpless and lost.

But, in the midst of all this grief what does happen is the coming together of people to comfort each other even if it’s for the briefest of moments. Family and friends descend and take charge of the variety of arrangements required for a funeral, with the centre of activity always being the kitchen.

Endless cups of tea need to be served; variety of meats need to be prepared; mountains of rice need to be cooked and more tea to be served again. Sharing a meal has got to be the most basic thing we all do on a daily basis but it’s in moments like these that it has so much more significance and so much more love.

And for this I thank all of you who were there in our time of need.

Lemon.....Onion Tea

 Onion tea

 5:30 pm and it was clearly time for some evening tea. However, with five cups of tea already had through the course of the day, it was decided that a cup of lemon tea would be the healthier option.

 Having placed the pot on the stove with water I went about adding a little green tea leaves and a teaspoon full of sugar. Lemon was always squeezed directly into the cup to make sure that the right amount of tanginess would be attained.

 July and the lemon season is upon us; the house is also full of lemons this time around. We’d been having a lot of family gatherings this past week so I was quite certain there were lemons stored in the fridge. I opened the fridge but didn’t see the lemons where they normally were; maybe they went bad and mom threw them out. Anyway, I thought I’d just go to the garden and pluck a lemon from the shrub; but then it was quite a walk and Sunday laziness came over me. I hunted hopefully in the forgotten corners of the fridge and to my joy…a bowl of cut lemons. However the bowl also contained onions, probably from the salad during lunch. Doesn’t matter I thought, I’d just wash the lemon wedge thoroughly with water and add it to my cup.

 Washing done, I took a sniff. No trace of onion. Great! Squeezed it into the pot of tea hoping that the boiling would remove any hidden trace of ‘onioness’.

 I pour my lemon green tea into my mug. The satisfaction of holding a hot cup of tea on a fairly pleasant evening is unmatched. I get comfortable in my chair and open a book; I take a sip….it tastes of onion. I have only myself to blame.