Celebrating Mr. Virgo

Yesterday marked eleven years he’s been gone. Mr. FixIt held me the night before and kissed the top of my head. His voice was soft as he stroked my hair and offered me love and support. I thanked him for making room in our marriage for Mr. Virgo’s memory. He said, “Of course! He will always be a part of your heart and mind.” He’s such a wonderful man.

Every year is different, yet the undercurrent of “gone, but not forgotten” runs ever present…like the background hum of electricity. We celebrated Mr. Virgo yesterday with one of the meals he taught me to make. Liver and onions. I hated that meal when Grandma made it. She cooked it to death and it tasted dry like shoe leather. Mr. Virgo taught me to flash fry it and serve it when it was just barely pink in the center. The onions had to be browned low and slow to get that beautiful caramelized finish that really brings out the flavor. I added steamed fresh asparagus and air fried seasoned potatoes.

I also baked an apple pie. This is the second time I’ve used the wrong apples and been disappointed with the results. I used eating apples instead of cooking apples because that’s what I had that needed using up. At any rate, when I served up a slice to Mr. FixIt, I told him what Mr. Virgo would say. Every time he heard that I had been a competitive baker, he’d snort with mock derision and say, “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that…she never bakes for me!” There was a reason…if I baked, we’d eat the whole thing. As it was, I gained a lot of weight when we were together because I got tired of cooking myself a separate meal and I began eating all that yummy meat and potatoes he was so fond of. I really have to watch it here because in typical male fashion, West Virginia comfort foods are in big demand.

We need to plant the irises that we dug up in the vacant lot Monday afternoon. We’ve settled on an area along the fence along the top of the stair well to the basement. We see it every day, and it’s nice and warm there, well drained and full-sun. I can’t wait till they bloom. They are as close to black as you can get in a flower. The spot we chose has sunk down over the years so we are going to dig up some dirt from the creek bank and then put topsoil over that. We have a bunch of rock that surrounded an old flowerbed and I want to place them around the periphery.

The afternoon was so warm and sunny. While the pie was baking, I took a walk down to the pollinator gardens to see if anything is popping up and so far it’s just grasses. We don’t even have dandelions yet. It won’t be long though. I came back up in time to take the pie out of the oven, then pulled my chair out of the building and sat in the sunshine to knit for a while. I’m nearly finished with the first sock of Sue’s pair.

Friends checked in throughout the day and sent their loving thoughts. It was a great day to toast an awesome man…WITH an awesome man!