With Gratitude

How thank-you notes can make a profound difference.

- Sharon Kofoed 

I LOVE COOKBOOKS, ALL SORTS OF COOKBOOKS. My collection has now taken over the house, but of them all, the one I value most is The Joy of Cooking. My copy is white with gold lettering and contains more than 900 pages of tantalizing information. The pages are worn, stained with drips of batter, greased with love and, most importantly, held together by silver duct tape. It is almost 40 years old. It is my standby.

I didn’t buy it. It was a wedding present given to me by a friend of my mother’s who hadn’t even attended the ceremony. It is the one gift that has stood the test of time.

Our wedding towels were shredded after years of use and our bed had to be replaced because of broken springs, but my cookbook is still working very well. I used it just yesterday.

MANY YEARS AGO, while browsing through The Joy of Cooking, I realized how much I loved that tattered recipe book and decided to send my mother’s friend another thank-you note.

I had quickly written her one just after my wedding, but I spent quite a bit of time composing this second one and finding the right words. In the card, I told her about the recipes my family had enjoyed and how much I appreciated her gift. I popped it in the mail and thought nothing more about it.