I love to eat them year round, not just during the hottest months. When my late husband Bill was alive, he would buy them fresh, rinse them in cold water, remove stems, slice into bite-sized pieces with a sharp knife, then sprinkle with sugar and serve warm over ready-made angel food cakes. When two strokes left him partially paralyzed, most of the work involved in preparing this sweet treat fell to me. To my amazement, with only one hand, he was still able to slice the strawberries and add the sugar. The first few times, I couldn’t help wondering if some of the red was blood, but he didn’t appear to be bleeding, and the dessert didn’t taste bloody.
After my husband died, I continued buying fresh strawberries and shortcake and preparing them the way Bill liked them because this made me feel closer to him. In the following poem from my collection, That’s Life, I illustrate this. Click this link to hear me read it.
***
The Art of Eating Strawberries
I eat them the way you like them,
feel close to you when I rinse them in cold water,
remove stems, tear into bite-sized pieces,
add sugar, let sit in the refrigerator,
heat in the microwave over shortcake,
so sweet, so warm,
wish you were here to enjoy them,
but you’ve gone to a better place
so I must eat strawberries alone.
***
Then I discovered whole all natural strawberries from Schwann. They’re already in bite-size pieces, so they don’t have to be sliced. They’re pretty sugary, as they are, and I don’t need the extra calories in angel food shortcake. Now I just put some in a bowl to thaw overnight, and they make a great breakfast treat. I think Bill would have approved. You can read more about other foods Bill liked and my cooking disasters in My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds.
Do you have a favorite summertime fruit? How do you like to eat it: plain, with vanilla ice cream perhaps?
***
Author Abbie Johnson Taylor
How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver
That’s Life: New and Selected Poems
My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds
Click to hear an audio trailer.
My Corner 
Abbie–Thanks for sharing this sweet treat of a poem! Oh, yes, strawberries, like poems, are good all year round. What a fresh and unique perspective on strawberries!
Best wishes for book sales–Alice
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Thank you, Alice, your comments are always a ray of sunshine, even when the day is sunny.
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I love strawberries, also. I like them done just the way Bill did. They are so tart they must have a little sugar on them. Lovely poem, Abbie. I always think of Barry when I eat peanut butter. He loved it and could have lived on it, I believe.
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Yuck! I never liked peanut butter, not even the creamy kind. Bill loved it, but he preferred the chunky variety. After his strokes left him with the use of only one hand, who do you think made his peanut butter sandwiches for him? That’s one chore I don’t miss doing.
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