2023/26 I AM GRAMMA CONNORS

Gramma Connors salad has a page in my recipe book with all sorts of stains on it. Those stains would have to be for another recipe beside it because no one has needed a recipe card for this one for at least a few decades. A simple pasta salad with five ingredients: ditalini pasta, green olives, sweet gherkin pickles, tuna or canned chicken and mayonnaise, it mixes up easily and lasts in the fridge. In fact, this salad has never, that I am aware of, had to be tossed from the fridge because people got tired of it before the leftovers were gone. It’s an unexpected blend of sweet and salty. You’ll either really love it or not care for it at all.

I make it almost weekly now, because it’s the go-to food of our missionary, Elder Timo Petersen, who is living with us right now. He can eat three bowls without a pause.

Tonight, after his temple shift. 
He ate two bowls, then just grabbed 
the container and finished it all off.

Today, as I was stirring Gramma Connors salad at the kitchen island, Dave commented that our grandkids consider Gramma Connors Salad “my” salad, whereas their parents know it’s Dave’s mother’s concoction. It struck me:

I have become Gramma Connors. 

I hadn’t realized that because the grands call me Gummy. But my name is Connors, and I am their Grandma so I guess I get to own that name now. We have Helen’s only great-grandchildren. My kids’ only Connors cousin, Ned, is not yet married and his last name is Cooper. So, until John’s wife Ashley gets to take on that name, I am the sole proprietor of that blessed title. 

I am not all that much like the Helen Connors I knew, but then, I did not get to know her as deeply as I would have liked before she slipped heavenward. When I get to thinking that she might be a little sad that her beloved David ended up with the slumpy, messy, disorganized gal that is me, I try to remind myself that Dave likes me. His mom always had confidence in his ability to make good choices. I pray that she would not be ashamed of me, because Dave deserves so much more that is graceful and refined.

What I know of Helen Connors is that she was loving and intelligent and gracious. She was also a person with a strong social conscience. She championed equal rights and opposed the Vietnam war. She sent a telegram to the president of the United States once with one clear sentence: STOP THIS DAMNED WAR. She wore pants when women who wore them were looked at sideways. She defended the underserved and taught her kids to do the same.

The most loving and devoted man I know has loved a Mrs. Connors from the day he was born. How lucky am I that I get to be one of them.

I hope, in some small measure, I can bring honor to the name. But if nothing else, I will have left the world with her yummy pasta salad recipe.