Chicken Tikka Masala with Grandma Ruby

This afternoon was one of the most pleasant I’ve ever had in my life.  I worked from my home study, and my grandma Ruby came down for dinner (Aaron had invited her and decided that he was going to take over the kitchen to make Indian food).

We had chicken tikka masala, an Indian tomato and heavy cream vegetable dish over rice.  The pictures don’t do it justice because it looks very messy but it’s fresh and wonderful.  It’s basically a simmered blend of many different ingredients straight from the produce section, mixed in with prepared chicken that has been marinated and cooked with more fresh ingredients, and then placed over the rice bed.  It was so good, we’ll probably have it again later this week.

Ruby was telling us about a friend of hers that passed away today or yesterday from cancer.  This lead to a conversation about our family history.  Her (Ruby’s) grandmother was a woman named Soodie May Bishop, who was born in 1862.  She lived to be 103 years old.  (That was her father’s mother.)  Her mother’s mother, Grandma Winningham, was apparently a mean woman with a fierce temper.  Ruby’s mom was born in 1905 and came of age when women were given the right to vote.  She was in the prime of her life when the Great Depression took the United States and global economy off a cliff.

Ruby, herself, was born in the early 1940’s, and got married at 16 years old.  She had my mom when she was 20.  Later, my mom got married at 19 and had me at 20, so there is only a 40 year age difference between us.  That has been one of the biggest blessings of my life because having family young enough to do everything with you when you are a child is an amazing experience.

It was just … peaceful.