The thing you don’t want to do while in the waiting area of the service department of the shiny, sleek, upscale new Jaguar/Land Rover dealership is cry. It’s not cool – or sophisticated –
or mature – or attractive in the least. I could blame the red, runny nose and watery eyes on a recent bought of bronchitis, but it is best to avoid activating the waterworks all together, so I
decided not to begin writing about my broken heart in a public setting.

Instead, I will wait until I get home, where I can write and weep alone. Besides, there isn’t much empathy for the owner of
a luxury vehicle – poor little rich girl and all…
I will say though, that it is a witness to the fact that money can’t buy you love. Maybe a nice wardrobe, and good teeth, but not love. So how do you live without true, romantic love?
How do you recover from love loss?

It has been almost two years since my fiancé and I parted ways. I never used to believe it when people said they never saw it coming…but believe me, I never saw it coming. So, in an
effort to press forward and recuperate from the blow, I threw myself into another male relationship…with my five-month-old grandson.

Our relationship turned out to be very symbiotic, one in which the parties involved depend upon each other for survival and emotional
support. I held him as he and I cried together. He learned how to eat, and I relearned how to feed someone you love. Mashed Sweet Potatoes – soft and easy. And we both learned, with
tentative, unbalanced baby steps, how to move forward.
Two years on, we laugh, and dance, and run and play, and the Earth is renewed and life is a dream that gently and merrily flows down the stream.

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SWEET POTATO BAKE

4 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup melted butter
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup half and half
Dash of salt
Large Marshmallows
To cook the potatoes, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
Poke potatoes several times with a paring knife and place on foil lined rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for 1 to 1 ½ hours until tender when squeezed with tongs. Remove from oven and cut in
half to release steam to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325.
In a stand mixer, combined potatoes and the rest of the ingredients together, except for half and
half. Beat until smooth, then add cream. Pour into 3-quart, buttered casserole. Bake for 30
minutes. Remove from oven and top with marshmallows. Cook 3 to 5 more minutes or until
marshmallows are browned.