my valentine's date with a 91 year-old woman

"Amy, this is Lempi. Do you want me to teach you how to make my banana cream pie tonight?"

"Um, yes."

And so began my Valentine's date with our awesome neighbor, Lempi. She delivered step-by-step instructions as I measured and mixed, hanging on her every word, so that I too, might one day make the world's most perfect banana cream pie.

All the while, I could tell it was killing her not to jump in and do it herself. As I mixed the flakey, delicious homemade pie crust, she said, "Don't give up. Persevere." And having lived through the depression, she saw that I scraped and used every last bit from the bowl. If there was a bootcamp for pie making, I was there. And I was loving every minute of it.

Sure, there were a few setbacks. Like the time when the basket she had set on the gas burners nearly went up in flames (it wasn't the first time, judging by the blackened straw on the side of the basket). And then there was the washing of dishes with water fetched from the bathroom then heated in a tea kettle because "I don't want to hear the faucet leak all night!"

I made four pie crusts under her tutelage. I filled one with the secret banana cream filling she taught me to make. Then I would bring two empty crusts home to freeze and she would keep one. As we said goodbye, she gave me a big hug and in the process stumbled a bit. Two of the crusts went crashing to the floor. She felt so awful. And I never let on that one had broken into about a bazillion pieces.

Yesterday we finished the pie I made in my lesson. And I'm happy to report it tasted just like Lempi's famed banana cream pie we've come to know and love. And I now have the secret recipe. State Fair pie bake-off, here I come.