Dobson: Stories, history, cake lifeblood of family

My dad turned 78 on Monday. Quite a milestone considering the medical issues that he’s faced since the mid-90s. Birthdays took on an extra special meaning.

link Patti Dobson

This year, the grand celebration spanned a couple of weeks, three cakes, multiple dinners and a few rounds of “Happy Birthday” in various keys.

Most of the family was able to gather, with the exception of one globe-trotting brother. We talked about him in his absence; so, it was almost as if he were with us.

Stories flow as readily as cake in our family. This is how we relate to the world. Our stories define us as a family. Our history, through our stories, is constantly updated.

Our stories allow us to remember those of us who have passed on, to honor their memory and presence in our lives. We get a special sort of comfort from those stories, from connecting with our past.

My dad’s birthday cake, every year without fail, is a spice cake, an old family recipe handed down from his mother, Sarah Dobson. I estimate the recipe to be close to 100 years old.

Talk about stories. I always feel connected to Grandma Dobson when I bake that cake. Memories of her — and my granddad, aunts and my dad — swirl around me, much like the fragrance of the spices as I blend the cake.

I catch a hint of cloves, and remember the old house on Caswell Street complete with ghost-story basement. I see my grandmother’s dancing eyes, and recognize my dad’s eyes, my eyes.

Even though Grandma Dobson has passed from this life to the next, the connection — the love — is still there. I remember it, feel it, every time I thumb through her old cook book.

I feel it when I pull a tattered page from the book, and bake something that Grandma Dobson made, that her mother made.

I don’t know what goes through my dad’s mind when he sees that, yet again, there’s a spice cake for his birthday. I hope that, like me, he is blanketed in memories and sweet stories from our past.

Patti Dobson writes about faith for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact her at:

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