DEAR BJ,

Dear Miz BJ and Mr. Sweet,

My friend Rachel overt Lawn Tea said she’d missed all a y’all so MUCH lately, and hopes so much that you’re doing better and better.  She’s told me so much about your wonderful family, with all those beautiful sweet Grand-children and all, and your lovely home that you keep so well.   She talks about your good cookin’ and how you sure do know your way around makin’ a good biscuit, and that you just do beat all when it comes to keepin’ house and arrangin’ things in such a nice way for all your family to enjoy.

BJ's Spring decor

And those gatherin’s!!  I do love to look at all those happy faces around all those tables in your dinin’ room!   Why, such good company would be sweetenin’ enough, even without that good ole iced tea to go around, and I marvel at your ease in the gettin’ ready.   Why, I been cookin’ nigh onto seventy years---bein’s I started out when I was about maybe six, and had to stand up on the lard can to mix that pan of biscuits, and I never saw such a hand at turnin’ out such good meals and dinners as y’all seem to just conjure up out of the air. 

bj breakfast

And those breakfasts!!!  My, Goodness ME, what a time you have makin those flapjacks all sorts a ways, just to try ‘em out.   I useta get so tired of pourin’ and flippin’ when I’d still be turnin’ em out when the schoolbus was near down the lane, and the boys would each grab a couple and fold ‘em like fried pies around a hunk a ham or a big ole sprinkle of sugar as they ran out the door.   

Weren’t them some days, though?  I wouten take nothin’ for those early mornin’s when whoever had stovewood duty would be in there a-clangin’ and a-blowin’ as I caught up the water for the coffeepot, and we had the kitchen all to ourselves for a quiet little talk before the sun come up and the coffee boiled.   I think now they might call that “one-on-one time,” but back then, you just grabbed whatever minute you could get between school and work and the young-un’s studyin’ and chores---why, I bet I had more good talks with my brood as we shouted around a cow’s rump while we was each a-milkin, than anybody does sittin’ together having a stranger paint their toenails.  I’m just sayin’.

And, can’t you just SMELL that good boilin’ coffee?  I don’t think any a them new coffeeshops could ever equal that good eggshell coffee we useta make in that big ole blue enamel pot.   And bacon a-fryin’?  You and I have cooked our share of good breakfasts, I bet, and Rachel says you’re the only person she’s ever known who could write forty-nine articles on BISCUITS, and make them beautiful and mouth-waterin’, ever single one. 

Her pepper biscuits

She also showed me the hand you have for decoratin’, with all the flowers and pretty pitchers and jars, and all that smart checkedy cloth and plates to set ‘em off.  She and I love RED almost as much as you do, and we talk about your dab hand with red all the time.

ready for the Bunco Group

I just wanted to drop you a note and say how much I enjoy your writin’ and pictures and cookin’ and the way you LOVE and share your family times and all the love that’s bound y’all together for so long.   What a family, and what a pair you two are---strong and kind and just bustin’ with love for one another.  

I send you my good thoughts and prayers for strength and healing and good reports from your doctors, as well as good rest and peaceful sleep as you fight and win this battle so bravely together.  

We haven’t met yet, but I just love all a Y’all.

Your new friend and reader,

Marthy Tidwell 

ps  You said Borry anytime, and I couldn't reach you to ask, so I borried a few of your lovely pictures for my friends to see.  xoxo