Chopping Onions

Everyone knows that chopping onions makes you teary.  So, it’s no surprise that my eyes were blurry  today.

I was having lunch with a couple of dear friends, and decided to make Mom’s tuna salad recipe for the sandwiches.   I almost never make it, because it has chopped pickles in it and I’m the only one in my house now who likes pickles.  And it has hard boiled eggs in it, and that takes time and effort, and it’s just easier to make tuna salad without them.

But I knew these friends ate pickles, and I was suddenly craving Mom’s tuna salad. As I minced the onion and chopped the eggs and pickles, I kept picturing Mom….

In the memory “movie” of my mind she is young and vibrant and smiling and knows how to do everything. She is laughing and her eyes are sparkling.

And she makes the best food ever.  She spreads the tuna salad between two pieces of Wonder Bread, cuts the sandwiches in fourths, and serves them with potato chips as we sit around the Formica table. They are perfect.

I try to follow Mom’s recipes. But they never taste quite the same or quite as good. And sometimes I get teary.  But everyone knows that chopping onions will do that.