"you like her more zen you know."
today mom told me that grandmother liza liked to save oranges and dry her own fruit peels for potpourri and mothballs. she said that she liked opera and music, and that she was a quiet, soft kind of person - not the severe person i always thought she was from her photograph, a stern-looking businesswoman in a shearling coat and pumps, holding a clutch in a topiary garden. mom said that she liked to recycle a lot of things out of respect for times of scarcity. "smells so good," she said when i peeled an orange in the kitchen this morning. "better than air freshener." that's when she told me the story.