The Price of Pecans

This is the first time I have posted anything written by another person on this blog.  This was written by Sharla McLaughlin Campbell, my niece. She is the daughter of my brother and his wife, Penny Jones McLaughlin.  Sharla wrote this about her mother, Penny.

I can stretch my rules enough to allow Sharla’s words to appear here because she was born and

raised in Lubbock.  Her father, my brother, lived his entire life in Lubbock.  I believe her mother,

 Penny, was born in Lubbock County, I’m not sure, but I do know she grew up on a farm between

 Idalou and  Lorenzo.  I copied this directly from Sharla’s Facebook post and resisted the urge to

 “correct” it.  I have not talent enough to improve this work and have not earned the right to edit it.

  Everything below was written by Sharla McLaughlin Campbell—I wish I had done it. 

 Jim McLaughlin

 

This is my favorite Christmas gift this year and probably one of my favorites I have or will ever receive.  These are pecans from my brother’s pecan tree in New Mexico that my Momma sent me.  A whole big quart container of them!  Anyone who has seen pecans in their natural state know that they do not look like this when they fall off the tree.  They are covered in a thick husk with sharp points that peel back from the ripe nut and sometimes fall away naturally.  Once that is removed by hand you get to the nut.  The nut itself is in a hard, beautifully variegated brown & black shell that must be cracked open with a nut cracker using great hand strength—but not too much—in order to extract the two whole halves of the pecan meat.  See how beautifully intact and perfect mine are?  Now that the nut meat is extracted, they must be picked free of the remaining bitter encasement that protects the nut in the shell.  Unlike other nuts, pecan are then ready to eat..a perfect food, very high in good fat, protein and antioxidants not to mention sweet and delicious right off the tree…even better after they dehydrate a bit.  They are known for their cancer & other degenerative disease preventive properties as they knock down free radicals, are anti-inflammatory preventing cell damage, and are rich in the nutrients that prevent strokes, migraines and arteriosclerosis.

But that is not why she sent them to me.  She sent them to me for a few reasons…1) She knows how much I love them, would use them and that I eat nuts daily now.  2) She is on a very tight, fixed budget most of which goes for her medical needs and it is something she could afford to do.  3)  She is from a generation that wastes nothing and to watch them just lay on the ground in abundance and ignored is not her way of doing things.

Here is what makes them so precious to me.  Most of you know my mom struggles with degenerative disc disease in her spine and has had 7+ surgeries in her spine to keep her mobile.  She lives with a pain pump to assist with the crushing pain of neuropathy, poor function, and compressed nerves.  What most of you do NOT know is that she is also suffering from a very progressive and aggressive arthritis particularly in her fingers, shoulders, knees and toes which is keeping these joints inflamed, tender, swollen and is deforming her hands and feet quickly and painfully now.  She probably won’t like it that I told you.  Tough.

When I think of my sweet little mother out gathering those pecans, bending and sorting those nuts into a basket and carrying them to the porch, where she sat for hours to shell and pick them with her hurty, gnarled hands, selecting only the most perfect ones for me…for this gift - I am just devastated and overwhelmed with her love for me.  The tenderness and care she took to keep them mostly whole is so like my mother…so much like she raised my brother and me.  I wonder what she thought about as she sat there with her little dog all that time painfully making my gift…did she relive moments with us, with my dad, did she miss him like she has for these 25 years he has been gone, think about the book she is reading, think about the stress all around her in frustration and helplessness, think about me and who I would feed with these nuts, or was she just content, like Momma is most of the time?...I am gonna ask her.

She is in her golden years and I don’t know who determined these years are golden but yes, she is growing old and it ain’t golden or easy on her.  I have her with me right now and these pecans are precious like she is.  I treasure them and her.  (If I ever say I treasure something..that is a VERY BIG DEAL…)

I made a pecan pie last night with 2 cups of them along with the Steen’s Cane syrup My Own Sweet Uncle Jim introduced me to (but that is a different story).  I ate a piece for breakfast with my first cup of black coffee and served Roger one in bed with a latte and he felt very special.  I savored every full of love decadent forkful.

In a culture that values huge, showy Christmas gifts of vehicles, high end techie toys, designer duds and fragrances, expensive jewelry, frivolous home goods and epicurean foods, I will take this plastic tub of pecans from my Momma and consider myself the most blessed of all.  Now go hug your Mom if she is still here or nurturer of choice if she is not…that is important…