my father laugh and gave my mother cause to look angrily at both of us---at me for being disrespectful of my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior. as a young woman, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large victorian farmhouse owned by fannie cratty. during those years my mother helped aunt fannie make the best blueberry jam ever tasted by anyone in glenfield. aunt fannie was well known for her jam and for never sharing the recipe with another living soul. even though my mother knew the recipe by heart, as long as aunt fannie was alive (and she lived to be ninety-six
