The Baby in the Lunch Basket

(by Rebecca Singelenberg)

I’m seeing my mom this weekend. Boxed rice and dry chicken are on the menu. But it’s made with lots and lots of love. My mother and her mother were both career women. Grandma Rosie ran a meat packing plant in Harrisburg, a real pioneer for her time. She was a four-foot-eleven dynamo, who handled all the workers with profound respect and was not afraid to get her hands dirty. During the Second World War, the plant got a government contract to provide the army with hides for leather boots. She worked alongside the men and skinned hides to meet the deadline.