Nothing is ever truly lost

My daughter, Beth, is having a birthday next week. It isn’t one of those ending in zero. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Her usual answer is orchids. This year she asked for guineas.

She has had them before. For those who are wondering, guineas are birds that look a lot like polka dotted chickens with odd looking bare heads. Their claim to fame is that they love eating ticks plus they make a racket whenever someone dares to step foot on their property.

The last ones she had were murdered by the local hawks, owls or maybe a coyote. In my opinion the worst thing about the birds is that they have droppings that put cows and horses to shame. They also don’t hesitate to use the car as a bathroom.

Beth tells me that I can find a source for eggs, chicks or even adult birds and have the birds mailed to her. I am hesitant to do this. The area where she lives has been having a lot of rain lately, along with other forms of bad weather. I would hate for a batch of dead birds to arrive on her doorstep.

I thought I had the perfect non-bird present for her. A couple of weeks ago she asked if I had one of her grandmother’s recipes. I said no. Then I got the idea to ask around and see if anyone had a copy of a cookbook that was put out by the Normandy United Methodist Church in the mid-1970’s. Her grandmother, Della Graham, was my first mother-in-law and had been very active in the church. I remembered that she had several recipes in the cookbook. I was sure that if I could find an old copy of it that Beth would be glad that I didn’t ship her polka dotted chickens.

I put out feelers asking if anyone had the elusive recipe collection. It took very little time until one of my nieces had found not one, but three copies. She contacted the sellers and all seemed to be going well until the sellers stopped responding. Neither of us knew why.

We are not giving up hope. There could be a number of reasons why there was no response. The process reminds me of my mother. I can’t begin to tell you how many times my mom asked for something that hadn’t been made for at least a decade or so. To my surprise, I usually found what she was asking for.

I am hoping that the cookbook search is successful. The last time I was in Normandy Church we had asked one of the secretaries if they had any copies of the book that we could buy. They said no. We left it at that. Every so often Beth will ask if I have a particular recipe. The answer is always no. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I thought about resuming the search.

Since we have found three different sellers. I am expecting my niece to hear from at least one of them. If not, then somebody, somewhere will surely find a copy.

If I have learned anything, it is that nothing is ever lost. Misplaced, yes. Well hidden, often. Lost forever, nope. Somewhere there is someone with a copy of the elusive recipes. Long after I have stopped looking for it, the book will turn up.

If it doesn’t then there are always birds to search for.