carrot cake

My husband loves carrot cake.  We had a delicious carrot cake for our wedding.  I've made and bought numerous carrot cakes and they were all good.  But then my mom discovered and made Southern Living's Best Carrot Cake Ever.  And it was.  It is a moist cake loaded with pineapple, coconut, nuts and of course, carrots.  Then a buttermilk glaze.  Then a homemade cream cheese frosting.  Oh my. But the list of ingredients and multiple steps daunted me and the recipe got filed.

Until this July 8 - Steve's Birthday.  Somehow I felt all baker-y and tackled the (not so hard) cake.  I followed directions and decorated with a flourish.  And somehow I made the Best Carrot Cake EVER!  Steve almost cried with pure joy at each bite.  I was beside myself with pride at my tasty creation.

For the last couple months I have been visiting James, a sweet 97 year old man.  He and his wife moved to Asheville twenty years ago and never found a church they clicked with.  On my first visit they upgraded me from hospice chaplain to their pastor and were happy to finally have one.  They told me all about the businesses they had run, their children and grandchildren, and places they had seen.  And I found out that James loved carrot cake.

So as I was mixing up Steve's cake, I was scheming to take a big piece to James.  Steve was gracious enough to sacrifice a portion of his precious cake to share.  I slid a chunk of that gooey cake into a container, popped it in an ice chest and put James on my visit schedule for the next day.

When I got to the nursing home I couldn't believe how much James had declined.  He opened his eyes and smiled when I showed him the cake.  His wife promised to make sure he got it when he was more awake.  Over the next few days James couldn't eat anything.  Except carrot cake.  Nothing else sounded good to him.  The nurses gave him bites of cake with his medicine.  His wife fed him bites for breakfast and for dinner.  James passed away on Friday night.  His wife ate the last two bites of cake in his honor.  She made me cry when she told me how my cake eased him out of this world.

So here's to the Best Carrot Cake Ever.  And the two men who enjoyed it so much...