Putting the book together…
A gift from Tom
The memories of Margaret
Written by Margaret
with questions from Legado
2026
© 2026 Margaret. Every answer in this book was written or dictated by Margaret. Book created with Legado, milibrolegado.com.
For Margaret
Grandma: so your stories are never lost and your great-grandchildren can read them.
With love, Tom
1
I was born in a small town in Ohio, in my grandmother Emily's house, on a winter Tuesday.
They told me it rained so hard that night the doctor arrived soaked to the bone, and my father lent him his only dry coat. My mother always said I was born in a hurry, and that I stayed that way all my life.
2
It was a low house with a red-tiled yard and a lemon tree that gave lemons all year round.
There was always a radio on in the kitchen and the smell of bread. I shared a room with my two sisters, and at night we told each other stories until Mom knocked on the wall.
3
They met at a dance at the town hall. My father couldn't dance and stepped on her feet all night.
She used to say she married him to teach him. He never learned, but they kept dancing for fifty years.
6
My mother's rice pudding, with lemon peel and cinnamon on top. She made it on Sundays and left it to cool on the windowsill. We'd walk past pretending not to notice.
10
I delivered bread by bicycle around the neighborhood when I was fourteen. I got up at five, and the baker always gave me a sweet roll to take home.
That job taught me that getting up early isn't so bad when someone is waiting for you with something warm.
14
At the train station. My suitcase fell open and he helped me pick everything up. He asked for my address so he could return a glove I'd left on the platform.
He never told me whether he'd left it there on purpose.
17
The trip to the coast with your grandfather for our twenty-fifth anniversary. We walked the old stone streets and ate by the water. At sunset we sat watching the boats without saying a word, and we didn't need to.
23
Grandma Emily's orange cake.
Beat three eggs with a cup of sugar until foamy. Add half a cup of oil, the juice and zest of two oranges, and slowly fold in two cups of self-rising flour. Bake in a moderate oven for about forty minutes. When it comes out, pour orange juice and sugar over it.
The secret is not to open the oven too soon.
28
The day my first grandchild was born. They let me hold him alone for a while and I sang him the same song my grandmother used to sing to me. He fell asleep right away, as if he already knew it.
30
A life with a lemon tree.
This book was written in Margaret's own words.
Legado
milibrolegado.com