Page 27 - Life's Outtakes 8

wouldn’t be the physical, active work she had always
done, she knew she could at least find some usefulness
there.

She baked bread, pies, and cookies, and cooked
mounds of mashed potatoes and pots of roast beef. At
mealtime the workers would descend on the kitchen and
wolf down the meals, grateful for the good food. That
helped her feel better, but still she wished she could do
more.

That was when she noticed the piles of laundry.
With the hard, dirty work, and everyone out in the
fields, the laundry was stacking up. She knew she
could do that. She washed load after load. As the first
loads started coming out of the dryer, she started
folding the clothes. That was when she noticed
something else she could do.

Many of her grandchildren’s jeans were holey and
frayed. She had grown up during the depression, and if
there was one thing she knew how to do, it was to patch
worn-out jeans. She stacked everything that needed
patching into one pile. She was amazed at how many
there were.

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