I had lunch with a friend the other day and we were talking about love. We agreed that a good love story wasn’t necessarily about romantic love; it could be about love for anyone or anything. As we talked, our drinks arrived and she asked, “For example, why do you love to drink black coffee?” This question made me smile because it illustrated the point perfectly. I love black coffee because my Grandfather taught me to have it that way and every time I drink it I think of him.
My Grandfather made his coffee in a percolator which seemed to have a bottomless supply all day long. He liked to drink his coffee strong and black from a special china cup; he said that the cup made it taste better. Everyone else in our family put cream and sugar in their coffee despite his protests that the only way to drink it was black.
When I was a little girl he would always pour a little bit in a cup for me and say, “Drink this, pumpkin, it’ll put hair on your chest!” I would always protest that girls shouldn’t have hair on their chests-this was our little routine. I don’t remember loving the taste of coffee at the time, for me this ritual was more about bonding with my Grandfather. I was sure that his pride grew with every sip of coffee that I took.
I felt that it was very important for my Grandfather to be proud of me. He was such an amazing man. I always asked him to tell me a story about when he was in World War II. He had so many great stories, all of them comical, about the shenanigans that he and his fellow soldiers got up to during the war. He even made the stories about the times he got wounded seem funny. He was awarded the Purple Heart for his injuries and deep down we all knew that his experiences in the war had been scary and painful, but he never let us see that side of it. He was always a positive, thoughtful person, no matter what difficulties he had encountered in his life.
I recently looked my Grandfather up on the internet, thinking to myself how amused he would have been at the concept of being "Googled" and much to my surprise found quite a lot of information on him. It became difficult to read the war records and the obituary through increasingly teary eyes so I decided to take a break. As I poured myself a cup of strong black coffee I thought about how my Grandfather would always be with me…and that, my dear friend, is why I love to drink black coffee.
Have your love story added to the collection by emailing it to: thelovecollector@gmail.com
Artwork has been created by the amazingly talented and generous Valentina Ramos. Check out her blog: Feeling Inspired
Photo courtesy of the author.
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