Gram – Dorothea Jane Park Nee Brown was an excellent cook, a farm chef of the highest caliber. Where she learned the fullness of her ability is not fully known. However, by the time the four siblings attained their freedom years, they had learned the richness of Gram’s cooking in many settings.
No doubt, she primarily cooked for her dear husband ‘Lloydy Dear’. It was certainly her cooking – in part, that welcomed the ready response:‘Yes, my lamb’ whenever she called to him. By extension – on the farm, she seemed to shine further when she was cooking for 6–10-12 or more farm workers who arrived at her kitchen when the pressing job was done. Although the four siblings were distractive for Gram she showed no indication of such. Nor did their presence seem to reduce the abundant hot food on the table. Mounds of potatoes, richly tasting stew, roast or turkey breast, sweet buttered vegetables and freshly baked bread satisfied the hungriest worker. The siblings watched and enjoyed the scene in awe, especially Stevie and Kenny who longed to be part of the farm work.
Gram was master chef at First Baptist Church, Camp Hermosa, a Reece’s Corners Restaurant and the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital Petrolia. At each of her, more public posts she regularly cooked for hundreds. Later in life Cathy – who briefly worked at the hospital longed for a chef like Gram to return.
On one particular day in the siblings’ youth – when Kenny was under her care, he helped her select a turkey from the flock in the barn for dinner. This was brand new to him but he remained helpful after the selection until part way through the plucking then drifted off to explore.
It was often this ‘explore time’ – generally guided by the adults on the farm and diligence of the older sister, that the 4 siblings stretched their legs, minds, creativity and imagination. Sustenance for these sojourns was Gram’s job. With hands full they would explore their environs with Gram’s simple but incredibly delicious oatmeal cookies: flat, consistent – easy to stack, and made by the dozen.
Years later, after Lloyd had passed on and the farm sold, Gram retired from the Hospital. She lived behind the high school in Petrolia and regularly invited the siblings over the fence to have lunch. One day – while Kenny was on the football team and growing ‘in wisdom stature and favour’, Gram laid out a 5 course lunch starting with a salad & soup, and ending with a small bowl of mini marshmallows.
A few months later Kenny & Gram had another 5 course lunch. In the interim she had a stroke and – though unable to speak normally, she was able to live alone and otherwise function. At the end of the meal Kenny picked up a picture of an extended family gathering. Gram – to Kenny’s great surprise, broke from her limitations and spoke clearly about the event and the people in the picture with a great smile. A few moments later she returned to saying the two – seeming fitting words she had: ‘work’ and ‘maybe’.
Farming Faith: It is the will of God for men & women to work at what their hands find to do, and through it all to apply faith, looking to God to answer the ‘maybes’.
Farming Faith 