Summer...

I have a new friend.

We have a visiting teaching program a Church. Each sister in the ward (congregation) is asked to visit some sisters each month at least one time. This gets rotated around every now and then. It helps us keep in touch with each member and be sure they have assistance if needed and love and care all the time. It is a wonderful program. I've had sisters to visit for years at a time and sometimes for only a brief time.

Two months ago I was asked to visit and get to know Summer Dudley. The first month was so busy my companion and I determined we would 'divide and conquer' so to speak. We each visited a couple of our sisters so we were sure everyone was visited and was okay. That month, Debra, my companion, visited Summer for our first visit.

Last month I visited Summer in her home for the first time. She is probably the shyest person I have ever met in my life. I knew I wanted to be her friend and, more importantly, I felt a strong desire for her to want to be my friend. We had a lovely visit on a Wednesday afternoon before I went to the nursing home to sing with Papa. I tried to learn some things about Summer like what her hobbies and interests are, etc. I shared our visiting teaching message for the month. I gave her some fresh tomatoes from our garden. It was just a wonderful visit and I left feeling really good about this new friendship.

Two Sunday's ago I entered the Relief Society room for our Sunday lesson. I saw Summer sitting by herself and I took the chair next to her. Then I noticed they were cutting and passing out cake. I asked Summer what was going on with the cake. She explained that she brought it. Her little boy had a birthday, she made cakes and had some left over. She brought one in to share with the ladies in Relief Society. During this conversation I learned her son is allergic to eggs. She made this lovely chocolate cake with bananas in place of eggs. I also learned the Summer is diabetic and can't even eat the cake she made. While we talked and I ate my piece of this super delicious cake, I asked Summer if I could come and visit her on Wednesday again. She grinned ear-to-ear and said, "Yes!"

During the lesson time one of the Relief Society presidency handed me a piece of paper with my visiting teaching route. Guess what??? Summer was no long on my route. I was truly sad about that. But since this was now my friend and not just someone I needed to visit, I left my appointment to visit with Summer in place.

As luck would have it, I was up all Tuesday throughout the night with a bad tummy. I called Summer Wednesday morning and canceled my visit with her.  I even called Papa and canceled singing with him at the nursing home.

This Tuesday evening we had a Relief Society activity that I Blogged about yesterday. I found Summer while I was checking out the items on the exchange table. During our conversation Summer asked if I knew anyone that could take her to her doctor visit today, Wednesday. I asked her what time. She told me. I told her I was coming into Georgetown earlier than usual to do some things before Papa and I sang and I would be happy to take her to the doctor. Then I had to tell her I was not her visiting teacher but we were still going to be friends.

This morning I went into Georgetown and took Summer to visit her doctor. I told her in the car that I really wanted her recipe for the cake made with bananas instead of eggs. I explained to her that my hubby is not a big sweet eater. I'm the one blessed with that gene. However, Claude does love a good chocolate cake with no icing every now and then. I explained that I was sure he would love that moist cake she made without icing. Again, I got the shy look from Summer and she said, "It not made from scratch, I don't know how to do that. It is a mix."  I assured her that was fine. Then she gave me instructions on how to substitute the bananas for the eggs. 

I'm so taken with this idea that I wanted to share it in my Blog. Here 'tis:

Chocolate Cake:  Use 1 chocolate cake mix and add ingredients it calls for (water and oil usually) with the exception of the eggs. Instead of an egg you use 1/2 a banana. So if the recipe on that box calls for 3 eggs you would use 1 1/2 bananas.

Brownies and Pancakes:  Summer doesn't use bananas in them. Instead she uses applesauce. She said the applesauce does not work in the chocolate cake though. You simply substitute 1/4 cup applesauce for one egg.  If your recipe called for 2 eggs you would use 1/2 cup applesauce.

I'm going to make that chocolate cake for my hubby for his birthday in October. It just seems like the right thing to do.

Friendships are important. They can begin in all kinds of ways. I'm very grateful for Visiting Teaching. It has helped me to stop being busy and learn about and become friends with lots of people over the years. Age, number of kids, interests, education, etc., none of these things seems to make any difference. We all learn about each other and develop a friendship that progresses from there.

Thanks Cheri for asking me to visit Summer and getting the opportunity to make this delightful friend.