Fried Turkey Thanksgiving

November 22, 2007 dawned sunny and unusually warm. Shirtsleeve weather. After our traditional Thanksgiving sharing time at New Life Church we headed home to prepare the feast. I had lobbied for years before we were finally ready to take a dangerous step---we were going to fry the turkey. (Earlier I had purchased the necessary fryer and peanut oil.) It was a perfect day to fire that cooker up in the back yard. Chris and I stood watch over the proceedings throughout, keeping the hot cooking oil and the little kids away from one another. At the appropriate time, Nancy came out to pronounce the bird ready for carving. Then we sat down to the best turkey dinner ever surrounded by most of our family. It was also the last holiday we were to enjoy before cancer completely engulfed us.

When I study these pictures, I see a woman who had come into our own. Gone was the shy scared little girl who faced terrible attention on many holidays. She had been rescued. She had been transformed. The fear had receded, replaced by the freedom to dye her hair brilliant red, and to take a chance on a new way of preparing the Thanksgiving turkey. I see a woman whose journey was almost complete, save one last round of suffering and liberation.

I will always treasure the memory of our “fried turkey Thanksgiving.” I hang on to Thanksgiving 2007, even as the kids and I face Thanksgiving 2008 without the woman who always made a holiday sunny and warm.