...except when it doesn't.

We spent alot of time this past winter plotting the upcoming summer. Especially at the end when the blizzards were raging and business unpredictable. The roster of workers started to come together nicely. We have a great group of people who all get along, alot of challenging catering events and the whole crazyness of summer to look forward to. And while every summer has it's curveballs, we were still basking in the hopefulness of spring.
But now, the title of my last post seems oddly out of place, a little more than a week later and life is not springing eternal as we had hoped, in fact just the opposite. Our baker and Bakery BFF, Irene, arrived last thursday from Portland and visited us friday to work out the summer schedule and give hugs all around. A few hours later she called breathless and shaky to say she was flying back to Portland that night to be with her husband, Jake. (who stayed behind to finish school) He was in an accident and they were performing emergency brain surgery. By Saturday afternoon, His family was told he would not recover and just like that, he was gone. We all are stunned and, for Irene, completely confused and devastated. Jake had been in our lives just a few short years, but he won us all over immediately with his love for Irene and a sincere interest in all that she cared about. My kids took to him right away, which says alot, just ask anyone around here who's tried to strike up a casual conversation with Charles, hard to get that boy to talk. But Jake could. He was a teacher and good at it, he was a musician and mighty good at that, too. We all danced in the wind and rain at their wedding last summer and thought to ourselves: These two are perfect for each other!
Well, the universe apparently had other plans.
I know this post doesn't seem to have that much to do with baking or food, but if you look at it closely it does. All the preparation and watchfulness in the world does not insulate us from the occasional reminder that we have no real control over the outcome, all we can do, is our best along the way.