 |
| (Photo copyright Lea Marshall) |
Ms. Sharon and I have been spending time together since...the beginning of time. Beginning of my time, at least. Sharon is a culinary artist for First Baptist Church, Tallahassee. Her interests include traveling to see Tyler Perry plays with church friends, critiquing and analyzing Tyler Perry movies while cooking fatback, threatening bodily harm to doctors attempting to inject cortisol shots into her heels, and throwing down the gauntlet at precisely 2pm every weekday afternoon. For years Ms. Sharon cooked lunch at our church's recreational center where people who worked downtown would come to exercise and eat during their lunch breaks. Ms. Sharon's services ceased at 2pm, as was posted around the building. Ms. Sharon could look somebody in the eye at 12:30pm and know they'd be back with a lunch order at 1:59. She's just got that sixth sense.
Ms. Sharon and I share a love for southern cooking, a propensity to create syrup-sweet iced tea and even sweeter lemonade, an abiding appreciation of Tyler Perry productions, nasty bad joints, a never-ending search for fashionable orthopedic shoes, and a decent liking for cleaning dishes. Throughout much of middle and high school I spent my Wednesday nights helping Ms. Sharon clean dishes after church supper instead of attending the youth service. Even now, whenever I go home I love to help Ms. Sharon clean dishes. Cleaning up a mess is immensely cathartic. Ms. Sharon tends to yell at me if I try to clean counter tops ("Put that rag down, Katherine! You just like your momma! Always trying to clean things!") but she doesn't mind me cleaning dishes so much. (On second thought, maybe that liking for cleaning dishes is solely mine.)
Ms. Sharon is epic. Twice in college did I bring a guy home and Ms. Sharon look him in the eye and pronounce that if he did me wrong she'd douse him in hot grits. Ms. Sharon loves to laugh, but she doesn't play about deadbeat men.
When I get to thinking about returning to Tallahassee Ms. Sharon is one of the first people I get excited to see. It's just about that time.
