Although I was never able to equal my mother’s apple pie, her hand-written directions remained in my recipe box for years. But when my celiac disease was diagnosed and I could no longer eat gluten, I realized that  piecrust was out. So I tossed the card in the trash. I should have kept it as a memento, but alas, I didn’t.

Recently, I sent my childhood neighbor playmate a birthday card for her 80^th birthday. (I’ve known her for seventy years!)  In her thank-you-email, she wrote that she had enjoyed an earlier blog post about my mother’s meatloaf dinner, a childhood favorite of mine. She remembered what a good cook my mom was, and said that she still had a handwritten index card with my mother’s recipe for horseradish mold. She offered to send it to me.

Sure enough, a few days later I received a letter with DO NOT BEND written on both sides of the envelope. In it was a pristine blue index card with my mother’s handwritten recipe. I probably won’t ever make horseradish mold, but I’m keeping the card.