Nana's Pie

“You can tell a man, hon, but you can't tell him much,” Nana always says, grinning from ear to ear perfectly pleased with her witty, bite-sized nuggets of wisdom tailored to her devoted granddaughters. Ann leaves all the young women in the room chuckling and nodding in agreement wherever she goes. Meanwhile, she’s always left the men curious, and generally hanging onto her every word in anticipation for what she might say next. Fingernails a classy, classic shade of red, her model body dangling with expensive garments - neck, wrists, and fingers drenched in gold, with the beauty of Snow White and a personality to be adored, being the center of attention comes as easily to Nana as the smell of corn on a midwestern summer breeze. The best part is that Nana doesn't even realize that she’s the one that everyone in the room aspires to embody.

Florence Ann is the matriarch, the now ninety-year-old leader of our proud family. “I always hated it,” she says every time anyone asks about her first name, “it’s just so ugly,” she finishes, absolutely appalled that someone might consider naming a child such a grotesque thing. Despite the loathing of her timeless namesake, Flo is still the coolest person in every room she enters.

A few weeks ago, Nana wasn’t doing so well. She had a kidney stone, followed by some other health complications which impacted her ability to eat. She had even quit eating her favorite food - candy. My cousin and I started to worry because when Nana can’t enjoy her family, friends, money, coffee, and food, she starts to get depressed and generally takes a turn for the worse. My dear cousin was already taking her to the doctor, administering meds, hiring extra caregiving help, cooking her meals, and doing everything she possibly could to make Nana comfortable enough to eat, but Nana just wasn’t able to eat more than a few bites before lounging in front of the television. I knew I had to try to come up with something to help Nana feel better, something to help perk her up. Finally, it came to me - her favorite local restaurant, Hawg ‘N’ Sauce, makes pies. Pie is one of Nana’s favorite food groups (the other two Nana-approved food groups are chocolate bars and cough drops, if you’re wondering). The only problem was, I live 1,000 miles away from Nana now - thus, enter Facebook groups.

Logging into Facebook, I found our hometown group and asked a simple question - if anyone knew of any delivery service drivers that could pick up a pie from Hawg ‘N’ Sauce to deliver to Nana. I never expected what came next…

Comments flooded in from people all over town asking if they could help deliver Nana’s pie, free of charge. Messages from six people came through asking me privately if they could deliver her pie, and even offered to help in any other way that might be needed. I was overwhelmed with gratitude from so many people lining up to help my Nana get her treat. Shortly after the commenting frenzy began, the owner of Hawg ‘N’ Sauce himself reached out to let me know that not only would he deliver her pie personally, he would send it to her free of charge. Equal parts flabbergasted, swelling with both gratitude and delight, I accepted his offer. Responding to every message and most of the comments, I felt warm, like all the kindness in the slipstream of consciousness had touched me that day, and knowing soon it would be passed onto my Nana within this gesture of her delivered dessert astounded the entire town.

The happy ending of the story never was shared until this moment, but Nana received her homemade banana pudding (which she adored because the only thing she likes as much as pie is homemade pudding), delivered free of charge right on schedule from the owner himself, Jeff. Nana FaceTimed me with the help of her caregiver upon the dessert’s arrival with tears in her eyes, “Thank you so much, hon. I appreciate this. I love you so much and I miss you terribly.” The banana pudding was the first item she ate more than a few bites of in two and a half days. Nana’s only regret came when she realized that Jeff wasn’t able to come all the way to the door - she wanted to thank him personally, and to catch up with him as she is certain she was his teacher when he was in second grade. All’s well that ends well.

Nana is doing well today. She’s still a bit down from the holiday blues, but she’s got a lot of people that love her, even more people that admire her, and a whole town ready and waiting to help her out again, anytime she needs. Our family is so grateful for our small Indiana community, now more than ever.

Our gratitude is boundless, but even if it hadn’t have been, it remains clear that more than half the town would do the right thing anyway, and that’s what defines a person. Character lays the foundation for our every decision, along with love, compassion, and kindness. When I come to visit Nana for Christmas this year, I’ll lay my eyes upon the welcome sign and remember that this little, middle-of-nowhere haven is the town that made us.

To the woman who taught me to cook with adding ‘a little of this, and a pinch of that’ with no recipe and little guidance, who taught me impeccable comedic timing with the ability to command an entire room, who also taught me to never settle for less, I love you. May you live to eat a hundred more banana puddings from Hawg ‘N’ Sauce.