Applesauce with Yvette!
My mother Jodi and I had the best time getting to know Yvette and her two daughters Heidi and Adele! I connected with Yvette through Woodlands Community Temple, where she has been a member for over 50 years, since shortly after the temple was founded.
As Yvette is a bit older, I coordinated with her daughter Heidi to make all the arrangements. Heidi and I wanted to bring back amazing memories for Yvette, so together we decided to make her Grandma's homemade applesauce. This is a Gralla family tradition dating back to Yvette's mother Elizabeth. Elizabeth was born in Lithuania and came to the United States through Ellis Island as a teenager. Elizabeth would always make applesauce for her grandkids, and often mixed in different fruits. The kids would try to guess which fruits were in it, making it a fun family game to see who could figure out the secret ingredient. Heidi and Adele have fond memories of this from growing up!
To help recreate this memory for Yvette, we made our own Grandma Elizabeth's Applesauce - and even added secret fruits to bring back the family tradition! We met the Gralla sisters at their mother’s independent living facility in the early evening. Together we washed and chopped the apples, and then boiled them until they were soft. Heidi brought a Foley Mill –a tool used for mashing cooked foods. I had never seen one of these before. The sisters remember the Foley Mill that their grandma used to use. We all took a turn twisting the crank of the Foley Mill. It was amazing to see how the apples smashed into smooth applesauce with just a few spins! Then we all sat together at the table and tried our yummy homemade creation! Heidi had pre-prepared two other kinds of applesauce for us to try with different surprise fruits pureed in. We all sampled each flavor and then guessed which fruits they were - just like Yvette and her kids had done many years ago. There was peach, pear, and more. It was a blast!
While we were at Yvettes apartment, we learned all about her family history. Yvette married Lawrence and they enjoyed 69 years of happy marriage before he passed away. We looked through photo albums and even got to see letters that the family wrote. Together they had 2 kids who each have three kids of their own now, and even a great grandchild. The family is very close and they all love to spend time with one another.
Yvette and her husband loved to travel. She mentioned an amazing trip to the Galapagos Islands they took when the kids were young. This was before the Galapoagos was a popular tourist destination!
One of my favorite things in Yvette’s apartment was her shelf full of beautiful glass figurines that she has been collecting for years! She told us about how she got them from her travels and family gifts.
Overall my mom and I had an AMAZING evening. It was extra special that I had two generations of my family together with two generations of their family to participate in my intergenerational project. I am so grateful to Yvette, Heidi, and Adele for sharing their Grandma Elizabeth’s applesauce tradition with me and my mom!