Bananas

This morning I was thinking about the last day Joseph ate a banana. It was February 5th, 2016. We had strongly encouraged him to even though he really didn't want to. And then it turned out he had the norovirus that was going around Michigan right then so he threw up. A few times.

That was the day my mom emailed me to tell me that my Granddaddy was in the hospital with a major stroke. And then I got the second email that he had passed away.

It's a strange association that formed in my mind -- bananas and my Granddaddy. There are better foods to associate with my Granddaddy like the tamales he would make, the asparagus he and my grandma would eat, or even the bread at their house which had seeds in it. But it's been bananas. Every time after that when I would offer Joseph a banana and he would decline, I would remember, "He hasn't had one since my Granddaddy died." And I would miss him again.

Today Kevin had dinner downtown with a guest speaker, so it was just me and the boys doing dinner. Joseph had gotten grumpy over a dose of Vitamin N (No) right before dinner so I braced myself for continued grumpiness through dinner. I got Matthew a banana and started heating up leftovers.

"I feel like having a banana, but I don't know if I want it," Joseph whined. "I mean, I want one, but I don't know if I feel like it."

I acted less surprised than I felt. "Well, you can have one too if you want," I told him and opened one up for him. Be casual, I ordered myself. Don't get excited.

"I like all the peel off, remember?" he said.

Oh, I remembered. Frankly, I was surprised he remembered after so long. After that time in February that he threw up an unwanted banana, I guess the whole trauma of the situation made it so that he refused bananas altogether. He would eat them in smoothie form, but he would barely even touch them in their original shape. After a few failed attempts, we were done trying. It had been difficult even before then to get him to eat bananas, anyway. If there were any spots or if the banana broke while we opened it, he wouldn't eat it. We might have given up trying to give him bananas back then anyway even if he hadn't flat out refused them.

But this banana was fine. There were two little strings to get off, but it was otherwise unblemished. I made it a point to look the opposite direction as he carefully took his first bite of banana in more than 21 months. He took another and then remarked, "This didn't taste as good as I thought it would."

I gave him some salty food so that the banana would taste sweeter in contrast. That helped, and he finished half of it before getting tired of it.

"Sometimes, when I'm having trouble eating a banana, I use sprinkles," I told him truthfully. "Do you want some?" He grinned and nodded, and before long most of the banana was gone. Not the last two bites. But when you haven't had banana in almost two years, it's okay to make a gradual comeback.

And that was that. He eats bananas again.

And I miss my grandpa.