As I slammed the door behind me after a long day at work, I was pleasantly surprised to see grandma sitting on the couch in the living room.
‘Hello ma’, I exclaimed, ‘I’m surprised! I mean…it’s not like you to visit me on a week day!’
‘Do I need a calendar to decide when to see my sugar baby’, she said with a frown. ‘I was missing you dear,’ and her face softened.
‘Aw…I missed you too. And please stop calling me baby!’
‘Okay, okay! You look tired. Go freshen up and we’ll grab ourselves something to eat.”
‘Why don’t you whip up my favorite biscuit pudding? I haven’t gorged on it in a long time ma’.
‘Honey, I am really tired. Why don’t we do this…? I’ll sit here and dictate the recipe and you do the rest?’
The very thought of that creamy biscuit pudding was so refreshing and I felt all the day’s fatigue and stress simply ebb away. Grandma really had a way with puddings and this particular one held a special place in my heart. Ever since I was a little girl, the biscuit pudding was our way of celebrating happy moments and to cheer us up during the not so happy ones.
‘Okay ...I’m ready now. Where do I start?’ I asked standing at the kitchen counter with my flowery apron and a pile of baking stuff strewn in front of me.
‘Get a flat glass dish and line the bottom with Marie biscuits’. Grandma shouted over from the living room.
I neatly arranged a layer of round, crispy, sweet smelling biscuits in rows making sure not to leave any gaps between them.
‘And then…’
‘Now pour over some condensed milk and top it up with a layer of chocolate sauce. Then repeat the process twice over again’.
‘Is that all? Are you sure you are not forgetting anything?’
‘What were you expecting dear...rocket science huh?’ she said with her notorious grin.
I walked out of the kitchen with one hand on my hip and the other holding up the pudding dish. ‘You’re impossible ma, if it was so simple, why didn’t you tell me the recipe before?’
‘If I had given out the recipe to you dear, you wouldn’t have come to visit me as often, would you?’, she winked and the glint in her grey eyes became all the more obvious.
I hugged her tight. ‘You are a clever grandma. You think I’m a kindergarten kid to fall for candies and stuff like that? I’m turning forty next month for your information’.
‘But don’t you agree that one of the reasons why you came over to me every weekend was this pudding?’
‘Well...I wouldn’t argue on that! But why are you giving out your recipe now ma?’
‘Because child, I’m growing old and this is one of the very few things I can leave behind for you. I want you whip yourself a treat when you are happy or sad and remember that your grandma will be by your side no matter what happens’.
‘I will grandma…I promise. But don’t you ever talk of going away’
‘I will never leave you honey. Now can we start with the pudding, I’m hungry!’
Over bowls brimming with pudding, we chatted, shared jokes and laughed our guts out as we reminisced how the pudding had taken me through poor grades at school, drug addiction and a failed marriage. The conversation made me realize that it is the smallest of things that make us happy and relieve our pain and the biscuit pudding was indeed a sinful but feel-good food.
Not aware of how hours flew by, we polished off the pudding but our talks went on and on until they were interrupted by a phone call. ‘Hello…’ I said cheerfully.
‘Liz…this is mom’
‘Hey mom…why are you sounding so low? Is everything all right?’
‘Grandma passed away…two hours ago’, she said amidst tears.
I felt my heart bolt and my spine chill. This could not be happening
‘Two hours ago? But mom….’
I turned around to the couch but grandma was not there. She was at the door …smiling her famous smile and waving goodbye. ‘You take care, sugar baby, and be good’. And she walked out of the door. I stood there frozen and silent until mom’s voice on the phone jolted me back to consciousness.
‘Liz, are you there? Honey, say something!’
‘But how can…’ I stammered
‘She suffered a cardiac arrest…. The neighbors called us up and rushed her to the hospital but they could not bring her back. I’m sorry Liz. They told me she was remembering you on her way here’.
‘I know mom…I know’.
‘Take care Liz…we’ll meet soon’
‘Bye mom’
I slumped back on the couch where grandma had been sitting a minute ago, her peculiar scent was still lingering in the air and I wanted it to linger on forever. Looking at the sticky remains of the biscuit pudding on the table, I knew she would always be there…..

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