The Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Tradition

“All we have is our “Memories” of good and past times with people we loved and spend time with.”

For anyone who has lost a loved one can understand what I am about to share.

A friendship of 36 years, even when we were living in different parts of the world and years in between not seeing each other, we were never strangers. It felt like yesterday.

We meet people for a reason to go a little distance on the life path and to learn something from each other. It was a ‘turbulent’ friendship with ups and downs like riding a roller coaster, but that is what it was.

Everybody was in the same boat and in for the roller coaster ride.  My friend Barbara lost her life due to lung cancer and spend the last days of her life in a hospital and nursing home. For 4 1/2 weeks, her adult children and friends paid her daily visits to support and to comfort her.

We had some beautiful moments where I was able to share memories with her and her children at her bedside. Doctors told us she only had three weeks to live and looking back I must say how brave Barbara was all that time, and never complained. She was not ready to go yet, she could not understand what was happening to her.

Her mind stayed clear till the bitter end when she started to have breathing problems toward the end, she died shortly a couple of days later.

The story with the cake is that every holiday Barbara would make her Pineapple Upside-Cake for her children (Adults now) and it became a yearly tradition. I loved her cake and spending the holidays with them.

It is my time now to make the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake to comfort Barbara’s children at this sad time and integrate this tradition into my own family during holidays. We love and miss you very much, Barbara. You will not be forgotten, but you know that.

Lilly Botto -Writer -” House & Garden” Category