Making Toast

By: Robert Rosenblatt

As I began to read this essay aloud, I am quickly lost as the author introduces all seven main characters at what seems like the same time. To help keep thing straight, I actually drew a diagram of the author's family,a visual to match the setting and character introduction that was being flung at me. The author is recounting how he and his wife (Ginny) moved in with their son-in-law (Harris) to help him after the death of the author's daughter (Harris' wife)Amy. Amy left behind three young children that the author, Ginny and Harris are raising with the assistance of the nanny, Ligaya.
The essay is composed two parts-memorial of a lost child and adjusting to life with children after the author has already raised three. Slightly surprising is the angle that the author takes while reminiscing about his daughter. The cliche' of it not being the proper order of things-the child dying before the parent, does not enter into to text, and while it maybe a theme, if it is then my subconscious blocked it out. Rather, the author tries (somewhat successfully) to take the point of view of the children, which at times, is heartbreaking, as children are still grappling with the concept of something as permanent as death.
The title is a bragging right of the author. Of all of the adjustments that he has had to make because of the death of his daughter, the one domestic skill he has mastered is making toast. He is able to recall perfectly how each member of the household likes their toast, and has the morning ritual of preparing it with the youngest child, Bubbies (James). People find it hard to move on, like time has stopped, like the earth should stand still while they grieve and morn, but this is not the case. After a tragic event happens that completely shakes up one's world, it is the routine of life that can help the most in just getting to the next day, then the next week and month, then year. I would like to think that that is exactly what the author discovered on this adventure of life.
The moral of the story is "If there have been, at various times, trifling misunderstandings in our life, now I see how one was able to value the passing of time." Meaning we should value the time we have.


Vocabulary Expansion:

Anomalous: deviating from or inconsistent with the common order, form, or rule; irregular; abnormal;unusual

Asymptomatic: showing no sign of disease

Excoriated: to denounce or berate severely; flay verbally, to strip off or remove the skin of

Beneficent: doing good or causing good to be done; conferring benefits; kindly in action or purpose

Ruminative: to chew again or over and over, to meditate on; ponder

Undemonstrative: not given to open exhibition or expression of emotion, esp. of affection


*All definitions are from http://dictionary.reference.com