The first email I opened this morning made me laugh out loud. That unto itself is always a wonderful thing!
The email was from Janie, who has since retired from the company where we on occasion worked together. Janie has a bottle of Tom’s Bee-Loved Honey. I think she might have gotten it at Tom’s backyard visitation, but quite frankly — I don’t remember clearly much about the events surrounding his death.
The key thing is Janie has a tubby plastic bear of Tom’s Bee-Loved Honey, with her. And “with her” means that the tubby bear is in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where Janie and Hubby go for several weeks each year, working on charitable building projects. Space constraints dictate how much “stuff” she can take on her annual mission, and Tom’s honey made the cut.
I know this because of the pictures she sent, where if you look closely, you can find a well-dressed bear (minus a hard hat!) amidst the construction activities.
Janie shared that the young lady pictures is Kelley S. from Pittsburg, who is in an NCCC group from Americorp. Salute Kelley, and all the rest of your co-workers, for what you do. And thanks for holding the bear!
If you look carefully at the bear, you’ll see the bottom honey is much lighter. Some honeys tend to crystalize over time — depending on many things like moisture content and the flowers involved. Honey experts say that isn’t an issue; simply heat the honey to bring it out of that stage and it is fine for use and just as tasty. I’ve noticed our spring honey tends to crystalize faster; it is also sweeter, so maybe those two things are related.
The bear looks sort of proud. I’m not sure what role he played in home construction — maybe just keeping Janie’s morning coffee sweet? Janie, it looks like you’ll be needing another bear, or bear full, of honey, in the near future.
Look me up come spring and we’ll make that happen.
Thanks for sharing the photos, and for getting Tom’s Bee-Loved Honey involved in a charitable organization. He’d love that.
