Once again the world comes comfortably closer around me, my fingertips reach across the oceans with a click here and there on my computer.  Once again a Christmas present comes from afar, this time from the northern corner of Switzerland and Italy in an email from a reader with a favor to ask: A couple of days ago I bought your book “The Xmas Cookie Club” as I am fascinated by the US “Cookie Swap” (I’ve come across it while surfing Great thing Internet!

I’ve cried reading chapter two (Charlene) as I’ve lost my mother 5 1/2 months ago and my Grandmother 3 weeks ago (not a good year for me) and I was totally feeling the pains of the loss Charlene was going through
The reason I am writing to you is to ask you whether I am allowed to quote your recipes in my Facebook blog:
I was thinking to start a “project” of baking the cookies from your book, take a picture and post on my page. Of course I’ll mention that it is from your book.
I’ve already mentioned your book when I bought it – please come to FB and have a look and leave a message, if you’d like.

Carola

     I responded:What a fabulous idea!  Could we have a cross-ocean communication/cookie club on each other’s fb pages?  I’ll be thrilled to put something on your page…how ’bout I do that when you do your first baking of the cookies?  And I want you to post your pictures and comments on my facebook page, too.  Is that okay?  This will be sooo fun.  I’m excited about this bridge across the continents and waters!

Then she wrote: My mother tongue is Italian and I’m trying hard to write my stories feelings in English as colourful as possible…which is sometimes quite difficult. I hope I pick out the right words! I live in the Northern and foggy part of Switzerland (Canton Aargau. The little village I live in counts 2100 souls and is called Lupfig. In this part of Switzerland we speak German) but I was born in the sunny South (Ticino). I had my first job at Zurich Airport and decided to stay in the North as I love the fact that I can use my languages… it’s a daily challenge for me. At home I speak Italian with my husband and children, I speak German outside and have some English speaking friends. From time to time I can refresh my French, too… In 2004 I left my job and gave birth to my daughter and in 2006 to my son. (18 months apart). Then the children’s birthdays came and I became aware how boring and unhealthy the cakes at the stores were… That’s how it all started. 

PS: I really have to tell you this: I cannot stop laughing thinking about it: One o’clock at night… I was reading the cookie recipes with extreme care, trying to figure myself baking (I have to do this for two reasons: 1: English is not my mother tongue and I have to make sure I understand the recipe well and 2: I have to check that we have the required ingredients in Switzerland ) and found out that something was wrong with Tracy’s recipe: the nuts listed under ingredients were invisible in the cooking instructions. I re-read the recipe 3 times, …slow, …slowlier, ..the slowliest. In the end I gave up, finally turned the page and there they were, under the “PS:” Oh did I laugh and laugh and thought: Ann Pearlman, you got me! And the best, the “PS” was on the back of the page…impossible to see at first, second, third sight Loved it!!!

     I, who am fluent only in English and have not yet accomplished fluency in another language, which is one of my life goals, admire her ability to waltz across four tongues. And so, she baked the cookies from the book and arranged a beautiful diorama. My pecan butter balls were on a plate in front of a Santa who held my book. Next to him was a gingerbread house. The recipe posted in English and Italian.

A week later the chocolate-almond bonbons with Almond Glaze, Chocolate Glaze and Confectioners sugar were laid in a Christmas Tree Configuration.  Again the recipe translated into Italian.

The next week, she was asked by an Italian Blog to write for them. Carola wondered if she should because she is “just a mom at home baking and they are professional cake designers.”   I encouraged her, telling her stories about success that start from home, and that the line between ‘amateur’ and  ‘professional’ is sometimes only in the degree, not the effect. So she stacked graduated baked stars glued together with icing into gorgeous Christmas trees festooned with garlands, candies and tiny Teddy Bears.  She made a battalion of snowmen surrounding the tree.

Here are parts of her first guest blog, translated from the Italian:

I love baking books and this passion I have for them has given me the possibility to cross the borders of the tiny Switzerland and introduced me to new worlds, new smells and new tastes: the U.S. and the United Kingdom (UK).Having two small children at home, I wasn’t able to go there in person but I could bring them to me in my library, in my Facebook page, in my kitchen and in my extra pounds too!

A few weeks ago I wrote the word “Cookies” in a British site that sells books to search for the latest publications on biscuits. Among the many books of recipes listed, “The Christmas Cookie Club (Ann Pearlman’s novel ) stood out with its beautiful and shiny cover.

Intrigued I read the story and immediately was fascinated by it: the book tells the story of the “Christmas Cookie Club” formed by 12 girlfriends who meet every year in December and spend the evening together and share their cookies, according to well defined rules…
A couple of days later, I had it in my hands. I read the first chapters in one breath but then I could not resist and I did go quickly through the pages looking for the cookies recipes.
“Reading first all the recipes will not ruin the surprises of the book,” I said to myself … but then I felt like when as a child, I secretly opened all the windows on the Advent calendar (let he (or she) who has never done it, cast the first cookie).

I had not yet finished reading all the recipes when an idea jumped to my mind: “Why not make a” blog “of these international cookies on my Facebook page of Sweet and that’s it?”

So I sent an email to Ms. Pearlman to ask for permission to publish her recipes along with my photos and comments and within a few hours and she answered “What a fantastic idea,” followed by 10 other unforgettable lines.
I was so happy! One, because she had taken the time to answer me and send me a nice email, and two, because she had given me the permission to copy from her book.
Ms A Pearlman is a wonderful person!
Although I was a “nothing” and she a well known author (Nominated to Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award), I was immediately treated with a lot of kindness.

A beautiful email exchange started and a wonderful collaboration continues today.
I’m so happy for what we achieved in these few days, and I am “honored” that she, too, feels excitement for my project.

And so my Facebook project, the”Christmas Cookie Club” was born. And like every project to be respected, here are my rules:
1: Been able to find and use American ingredients, avoiding substitutions.
Should there be, describe what has been replaced.
2: Follow the recipe in the book literally.
3: have fun.
4: Been able to stop eating the cookies before they are finished

I forgot: the book (in English) “The Christmas Cookie Club” has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian and Chinese, but unfortunately not yet in Italian. We hope this happens soon. For you, I will translate and have translated the recipes into Italian, without adding anything new.
Doubts or questions arise, please do not hesitate to write me on my FB page.
I hope that this adventure will sweetly enter with its magnificent fragrances into your home, and I will be happy to publish photos and other recipes as soon as I’ce baked them.And finally: the cookies of the first and second chapter are really simple to prepare, and delicious!A sweet goodbye to all of you.

 To me, I’m the passionate writer who is never quite sure if I write primarily for the benefit of my computer, which may finally learn to write on its own, or whether my words will be read by many.  The Internet, if it’s anything, is the great spreader of democracy.  People “like” me from all over the world. My president sends me tweets.  Recently, it has enabled important political revolutions and changes. And, perhaps, my relationship with Carola from a small town in Switzerland is part of an everyday revolution that is taking place, as the internet gathers people together around shared interests and passions. She’s amazed that I took the time to respond to her, since she is “nothing” and I’m a famous author.  Maybe the internet humanizes all of us, and levels the playing field. Or at least it can. I’m always honored when a reader contacts me.  So I chose to use the internet that way, responding to her and encouraging her.  She still has nine more cookies to bake and share with her family, friends and blog readers, a project which could stretch until the season to once again think about this time of year in earnest. And I will gladly post her Hermit cookies, her fortune cookies with all their good wishes (Can’t wait to see what wishes she devises).

I will continue to learn from her: I did not know that brown sugar is an American invention; we do not have an art here of turning cakes into Cinderella carriages. So I witness her creations stunned.  If my gift to her is giving her permission to use my recipe, she gives me back the gift of making the cookies in an even more elaborate and artistic way than I imagined. Once again, giving proves generosity is rewarded. And cookies, though a conventional feminine task, have become a way to bring contemporary women together internationally, doing something traditional but in a very professional and fun way.

Meanwhile, a bridge has been built across two continents and a vast ocean bringing us all that much closer together. As close as a few clicks and our similar love for baking and creating.

Here’s a sneak-peek at a recipe from A Gift for My Sister.  

Tara and Levy, who is four, invented theses snowman cookies together for their first cookie club.  They started with a basic sugar cookie recipe.

4 cups sifted flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and the grated zest of 2 lemons

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.  Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs.  Add the flour mixture and mix on low until combined.  Stir in vanilla or lemon juice and zest.  Wrap dough in plastic and chill for one hour.

Frosting

4 Tablespoons of milk,

½ teaspoon of almond extract

4 cups of confectioners’ sugar

Stir milk and extract into confectioners’ sugar.  Add more milk if necessary.

Roll the chilled dough out and cut into circles of three different sizes, the largest one about 1 1/2 inches.  Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.   Overlap the middle sized piece over the large one, and the smallest over the middle.  Press the overlapping dough into each other. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Cool.

Frost with white frosting. Then decorate as you wish. Colored shredded coconut can make hair of different colors, just place coconut in a plastic bag and add food coloring.

The rest is up to your imagination, and time.  You can mix the remainder of the frosting with food coloring and paint features, or clothes on the snowmen.  Store bought balls, sprinkles, or stars can become eyes or buttons. Frosting tubes add colorful scarves, stripes, shirts, pants, or hats.

Have fun!  Play!

The Mother’s and More Book Club from Findlay, Ohio follows me on twitter and shared me their comments about The Christmas Cookie Club.  How fun to get to be ‘a spy’ at their discussion:

I really liked the “real life” feel of this book! The description of each woman gave me a feeling of “connectedness” with “her” and bought a sense of closeness to each character. Each story was down to earth, true to life, and was easy to relate to. Easy, fast read and wonderful stories.

This was a fast and easy read. I loved how each chapter started with a recipe and the history of ingredients. I have a new found appreciation for spices and ingredients I didn’t typically think about. I loved the characters and could relate a little to each.

I really enjoyed the book and all the recipes and ideas on having a Christmas cookie exchange. I liked how Marnie had a wide variety of friends- ones that she made and met throughout her life and her ever changing life. It is so real to life how we have different types of friends throughout our stages of life and how Marnie is able to keep them throughout her life and unite all of them at the Christmas cookie exchange. This was a feel good book and a joy to read.You want to be a part of this Christmas cookie exchange after reading this book.

–Suzy Nauert

I really enjoyed reading the information on the spices and ingredients and all of the recipes. My favorite part of the book was when all the women were dancing together; it was such a feel good part. I felt connected to the story and related to the problems having trouble with having babies.

Great read. I really enjoyed the interesting information about the everyday ingredients that we take for granted. How neat that they come from all different cultures and corners of the world combined in some of our favorite goodies. An interesting metaphor to a group of friends. All different, from different backgrounds, together form a strong bond.

-Lauralee Vonlehmden

I really enjoyed Marnie’s story and her relationship with her daughters. I hope our Mothers and More group can do our cookie exchange like the one in the book. I enjoyed where the spices were from. A really good read!!

-Amy Grimm (Mothers and More Book Club Coordinator)

First of all I love Christmas time!! So when I came across your book I knew I had to bring it to our book club meeting to read this year!! With that being said I am very thankful I did! What a wonderful story about friendships and traditions. I loved how each character not only had a story about their personal life, but about their cookie. I must say I wanted to jump right in and join their exchange because that is exactly how I envision a cookie exchange!  Our group currently does a cookie exchange,but will be changing things next year!!

-Holly Keckler (Mothers and More Co-Leader)

Book Club Discussion as a whole:

Everyone seemed to really enjoy your book and most finished within a week! We have decided that your book inspired us to use several of your ideas for our cookie exchange next year! In fact our exchange takes place next week and the first rule put into place is “No plastic wrap and paper plates”. The creative packaging was something we all enjoyed. Second, we are going to donate a set of cookies from each of us to the Hospice at our local hospital. This was something very important to one of our members who recently had her grandfather pass away in hospice and remembers the offering of cookies they had for them as they sat by his side not ever wanting to leave. This will hopefully be a continued tradition each year.

Thanks to you for such a wonderful, heartfelt story!!

Sincerely,

Mothers and More

Findlay, Ohio Chapter

3 large eggs                                                            3 T. melted butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar                                       1/4 t. salt

2 T. flour                                                                 2 C pecans (1 C coarsely shopped. The other almost whole)

1 C pure maple syrup                                               1 prepared pie shell (unbaked)

Heat oven to 425. In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in flour, syrup, butter and salt until thoroughly blended. Stir in pecans. Pour into pie crust and bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 350 and bake 40-45 minutes longer.  If they begin to get brown earlier, cover the edges with tin foil.  Cool.

This pie, which is everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving pie, is rich enough without topping. But:

In a medium bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat 1 C heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form; gradually beat in 2 T maple syrup until stiff.  Swirl over center of pie. Decorate with pecan halves.

This is everybody’s favorite Chocolate desert.  It is very rich and the amaretto adds a special flavor.  Warning: it is time consuming, expensive (especially if you use good chocolate), but worth the effort. Friends and family ask me to make it and beg for the recipe!\Cake:

Shortening to grease pan

5 ounces of unsweetened chocolate (I use ScharffenBerger)

1 ¼ cups unsalted butter (2 ½ sticks)

5 eggs

2 ½ cups sugar

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 T Amaretto Liqueur

1 ½ t. Vanilla

¼ t. salt

1/3 c. chopped toasted almonds

2 T of Amaretto to sprinkle over the warm cake.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch springform pan with shortening.  Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit in the bottom of the pan and grease.

Melt the chocolate with the butter over low heat or microwave but watch it. Don’t let it scorch.

Combine eggs, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk until blended and smooth. Stir in chocolate. Add the flour, amaretto, vanilla and salt and mix until blended. Stir in chopped almonds.

Place the pan on a baking sheet. Pour in the batter and bake for 60-75 minutes until the center is firm. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, invert onto a rack to cool, and remove the parchment paper.  Sprinkle while still warm with 2 T of Amaretto.

Glaze:

2 bars ( 3 ounces each) of Tobler Tradition bittersweet chocolate or Lindt Excellence

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate

3 T water

3 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 T of Amaretto

24 -36 blanched, toasted whole almonds.

Melt the two chocolates with the water as you did before.  When smooth, mix in the butter until melted, remove from heat.  Leave at room temperature for no longer than two hours before glazing the cooled cake.  (I often make the cake early in the morning and start the glaze in afternoon.)

Place the cake upside down on a piece of waxed paper. Set the pan of glaze in a larger pan of ice water and beat by hand until it’s thick enough to spread.  How long this will take depends on how cool the glaze is.  Remove glaze from ice water and pour over the top of the cake, spread it evenly over the top and sides with a spatula.

Before the glaze has hardened, press almonds around the top.  Make another circle, if you want, an inch closer to the center.

Cut into thin slices.

This cake can be glazed 24 hours before serving.  Store at room temperature.  Freezing changes the appearance of the glaze but the unglazed cake can be frozen for several months.

Enjoy!

Here’s a fresh, easy to make, low cal, low fat dinner that will particularly appeal to those who like to improvise their recipes.  The key element is the tomatoes you chose.  Pick flavorful ones: heirloom, the new dry farmed , cherry or a combination.  My farmer’s market still has good tomatoes, but this might be the last week.  This is how you make the dish:

Sauté onions (one large one, chopped) and three or four cloves of garlic, chopped, in 1 T. of olive oil.

Add a chopped green pepper (and jalapeno if you like it spicy. )

Add sliced mushrooms.

Let this mixture cook until everything is soft.

Now add three or four large tomatoes.  You don’t need to peel them, just chop them up and throw them in.

Add salt and pepper to taste. And fresh basil.

Cover and let simmer for five or ten minutes.

Meanwhile, take a whole spaghetti squash, pierce it , and microwave it for five minutes. Turn it over and microwave for another 4 minutes. Check to see if it’s slightly soft.  Let it cool for 5 minutes. Then cut it in half, scrape out the seeds, and use a fork to ‘comb’ strands.  It’s a great low cal, low carb substitute for pasta.

Now, taste your sauce. What does it need more of? Wine? Red pepper?  You can add ground meat, or Italian sausage, or Soy burger if you want.

Put the squash on plates, cover with sauce, sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Enjoy!

We’ve had so much fun on the Christmas cookie club page, but now we have to expand to a new page on facebook to embrace everything that is happening.  A paperback will be on sale as of Oct. 25, just a few short weeks away.  The new book will have the complete novel, an interview, book club readers guide, AND a new chapter which includes recipes from the three winners of the cookie contest we had last year.

There will also be a excerpt from my next novel,  A Gift for My Sister, which will be on the stands in November in the U.K. and in May in the U.S.

So I’m launching a new author’s page.  I hope you like it because I will be sending out several autographed paperback books.  Thank you for liking my new page!

Recently I received comforting news through twitter. I’vewrittenbefore about the additional celebrations surrounding the Christmas Cookie Club that Facebook and Twitter have brought me. I thank all the people who have taken the time to tweet or message me and share the impact my books have had. How wonderful to be living in a time when this is so easily possible.

A few weeks ago, I received a twitter about a much less happy publishing story.  “T” wondered if I had a new address for Colton because our book had such an important impact on him and his community.

Sometimes we do something with all the best intentions in the world and the truth of the old saying no good deed goes unpunished becomes clear.  That was certainly true of writing the book Inside the Crips in which Colton Simpson and I focused on his life as a L.A. Crip gang member.  Our dream was that the book would be a cautionary tale helping to quell gang violence as well as a platform for Colton when he spoke to junior highs, high schools, and juvenile detention centers.

Colton and me, 2003

That was not to be.  Instead, the book and I were subpoenaed in a trial against him and used to convince a jury that he needed to be put away for 126 years to life.    I testified for a day and half. He was thin and drained after several years of incarceration in the county jail.  The sadness that filled his eyes when he saw me take the witness chair while he sat in the chair for the accused was by far the most painful event of my professional life. Colton was found guilty of being the get-away driver in a jewelry heist that netted an 800.00 dollar earring. What an irony that one person is sentenced to 100 plus years for an 800 robbery and another (Madoff) receives a similar sentence for an 18 billion dollar robbery that damaged thousands of people.

T’s tweet proved that in spite of the vagaries of our justice system, the book lives on. I offered him a way to reach Colton and asked how the book helped him.

Meanwhile, I Googled his community, a First Nation reserve for several groups of Cree in Alberta, Canada.  Large oil and gas deposits lie under rich agricultural land allowing the four nations of Cree that live there to be prosperous and stable. Crack cocaine was introduced and influx of drugs resulted in gangs and their accompanying violence including four or five drive-bys a night. A two-year-old girl was shot by a stray bullet.  In a city of 12,000, twelve gun firings in one week make the city sound like a war zone and caused sufficient alarm that the Canadian government declared the town in a state of crisis and dispatched gang experts.  The gangs were viewed as a result of larger social problems:  drugs, disenfranchisement, and fragmented family life worsened by a residential school system.  The influx of oil money and boomtowns created a demand for drugs. The reserve became part of the thoroughfare for drugs while children and teens became part of the gang’s jockeying for power.  This a version of the story documented in Inside the Crips where preteens become recruited and involved in the gangs.

T’s next tweet informed me he lives just off a native reserve where gangs are crazy, including drive bys and kids beating kids.  He’s in eighth grade and his teacher had the class read Inside the Crips. Because of the book, a lot of “his friends realized the out come in losing friends, and life with the gang life style. There were programs to help the community, too” Most of the school read the book and it was a big hit. As a result, many people stopped gang activity, T reported.

I congratulated him on choosing to appreciate the life he had been given instead of the gang world that involves prison, death, or both.

T’s tweet provided a flutter of joy and proof that our book continues to travel and heal people in spite of the heartbreak that one of its authors remains caged in a California prison.

It’s a terrible irony that the most positive thing that Colton did in his life – our book—was used to put him in prison for the rest of it.  In spite of the pain it has caused in our lives, the book wages our struggle against the gangs for us. subpoenaed

Yes, Inside the Crips continues to speak for Colton. Our book and our mission has taken on a life of its own.

And tweets and facebook messages bring me comforting news despite the heartrending situation.

After I posted my painting of The Grackle who Sang the World Awake on Facebook, I was asked to tell the story of how that painting came to be. So, here it is:

When I was in Costa Rica I met a bird who sang the sounds of the world to me.  I was on a trip loaded with birders who came equipped with special cameras, binoculars, books, and meticulous lists of birds. Costa Rica is a birder’s paradise because of its multiple ecosystems in a relatively small space: mangrove swamps, Caribbean coastal plains, the Pacific Ocean, the rainforest, cloud forests, the mountains.  Each niche is populated by unique birds, over 850 species in a country the size of West Virginia, more than the U.S. and Canada.

Our birders were in heaven, seeing over a 100 different species in a few hours and compiling pages of new birds, capturing images of flitting, flying, diving, sleeping creatures with crescents, dots, splotches, amazing beaks and wings.   And yes they saw the elusive Quetzal whose feathers are so brilliantly spectacular, so iridescent that if eye shadow and nail polish could be created those shimmering colors they would be best sellers and we rather drab humans would give birds some competition. The birders, including our leader, were mostly male, carrying cameras with telephoto lenses adding at least six inches to the camera.

I was a complete failure at this. Well, not complete. I was able to see   Macaws, toucans, flycatchers, banaquits, tanagers and hundreds of hummingbirds sipping nectar from birdfeeders, but I also see them at home, in fact right now a gorgeous green one is at my feeder.  I was terrific at taking photos of sloths who moved only an inch an hour, hanging from their claws overhead with their faces like fuzzy babies. The only Quetzal I saw was stuffed in a museum, but of course I snapped his picture so I could remember his colors, long swooping tail, and the strange look of his small head, beady eyes, and tiny sharp beak stuck on top of his long, graceful body.

One afternoon, I sat on the porch of my room, and tried to capture the turquoise sea and cerulean sky of the Pacific with watercolor.  I heard a melody, which sounded like an aria from an opera and thought someone was playing the radio. A few minutes later, there was a siren, then a howler monkey.  I looked around, couldn’t spot a monkey, but saw a large bird sitting right above me on a branch. He was black with iridescent purple and indigo feathers, backlit by the setting sun.  I painted while he serenaded. With a startling gold eye against his blue black feathers, open beak, he sang, not just a repetitive melody and trills like most birds do, but whistles and thrills and screeches, and sweet melodies, too. He gloried in the abrasive sounds of the forest as well as the city. Clutching the branch with great claws, he crooned away to me and the setting sun, while I happily painted.

Now this was a bird to be excited about, amazing in his noises and variety.

At dinner that night, I told the birders about him and asked what he was. They were nonplussed as he was simply a common Great-tailed Grackle living across much of the southern and western U.S. as well as all of Central America.  Widespread, frequent, and ordinary.  Not spectacularly beautiful or rare.   Yes, I understand the fascination with seeing the spectacular and wondrous assortment that evolution has wrought in bird species.  And yes, I understand the fact that the birders, mostly men, were following their own evolutionary imperatives as they relentlessly hunted, shot the bird with a long pointed camera and brought it home to be added to a list.

“But his song is amazing, this was a talented and creative bird, able to make a huge range of sounds, all the sounds of the world and he was so happy doing it.” I bragged about his incredible talent.  “He isn’t just pretty and rare, he says something,” I exclaimed.  “Looks only last, what, maybe five minutes. It’s what is said that’s important.”

The women got my point and chuckled.

The men resumed their tasks, eating or working on bird lists.

When I came home, I tried to capture, to relive once again the magic of the Grackle’s serenade as he played the sounds of the world to me.  And painted some of the world he sang.

And that’s the story of the painting, THE GRACKLE WHO SANG THE WORLD AWAKE.

The painting is 3 feet by 4 feet. Here are some details of the painting so you can see some of what the grackle sang:

Shortly after the 2011 new year, I received an email from Michelle, the director of a Hospice in a North Adelaide, South Australia. A new cookie club, inspired by the novel, brought cookies to the hospice. “A lady by the name of Carole and her cookie club friends shared with us an amazing gesture, delivering to our 16 bed facility copious beautifully home baked and decorated jars of cookies, slices and other delights. I cannot even begin to tell you the impact this had on our patients,” Michelle wrote. She snapped photos of her patients receiving the cookies and planned to write about the event in the hospice Newsletter. I asked her if I could please see them.
A little while later, Michelle sent the Newsletter. The dark headline said: Kindness from a Christmas Cookie Club. Beneath it, the text started in bright red:
“Four years ago, Carole Woodmore and her family lost loved ones dear to them whilst living in the UK. Although both deaths were difficult, the death of a young family friend in his 30’s with a young family of his own hit Carole and her husband hard; and made them think about embracing life more and gave them the courage to follow their dreams. This led to their immigration to Australia with their young family. They feel very blessed and grateful to have the opportunity to be able to fulfil their dreams when others do not.”
And then switched to the customary black:
“Carole recently read a book called ‘The Christmas Cookie Club’. This book tells the tale of 12 women who gather each Christmas to share their joys and sorrows, wine and cookies. They each make an extra set and donate them to a local Hospice – as a small way of showing some love and support to those families who will spend the festive season in Hospices.
“This book inspired Carole to set up a cookie club of her own given her positive experience with Hospice care in the UK, and the Mary Potter Hospice was blessed to be the recipient of an abundant amount of delicious handmade cookies and slices, all beautifully wrapped and presented.
” Inspired by Carole’s heartfelt generosity, The Mary Potter Foundation contacted the author of the book, Ann Pearlman, in the hope that they could share with her what an impact her book has had on a Hospice in South Australia. Ann eagerly replied, thrilled at what she had read:
“‘I can’t begin to tell you how happy and moved I am by your email. It’s been amazing to find out that my novel has had such an amazing, positive effect throughout the world. I hope you have as happy a New Year as you’ve just made mine! Ann”
Around the text were photos of patients and staff. A grinning woman, eyes shinning behind glasses and wearing a turquoise nightgown, held a tin decorated with gingerbread boys as she lay covered with her blue and white checked blanket. Laying on it was a card. Please Help Yourself and Enjoy These Treats it read. A chain of amethyst beads circled her wrist. In another picture, a woman clasped an orange box with bright flowers and a frilled ribbon. She beamed joy while being hugged by a staff member. On a table, gaily wrapped containers, some tied with red balls and curled bows, waited to be untied, unwrapped and gobbled up.
I examined the smiling faces of the patients on the other side of the world, and their delight at cookies for their last holiday. Michelle told me I could use the text, but not the pictures as the patients who had been in the Hospice during that time had all died. Their happiness was evident in their joyful faces. Heartbreaking and heartwarming, it’s wonderful how we can spread marvelous ripples all across the world. How small this planet is, and how easy it sometimes can be to make a difference.