The Viola
Sadly, our dear friends Allison and Mark lost their grandmother, Viola, this past December. She had moved into a new apartment in August of last year, where she received a little more assistance when she needed it. As Allison and Mark’s mom, Bethany, and her husband, Harold, were discussing the new place and some of the new items they needed to pick up for Viola (new coffee pot, new TV), she interrupted, asking, “More important than any of this, is there a nice cabinet for the liquor?” Bethany just laughed and said, “You know, we already checked that out when we visited! There’s only one problem: it’s above the refrigerator and Harold is the only one who can reach it. I’m not sure that’s going to work very well. I think you’d have to drag a chair over if you wanted to get at it.” Then Harold said, “Yeah, maybe that’s not such a good plan considering you just fell earlier this week.” Viola replied, “I don’t know…I think reaching for a bottle of Wild Turkey sounds like a good way to go.”
My kind of lady.
Collectively, the Bun and I only talked with Viola a handful of times, but it was obvious to us how much she meant to her family and how much her family meant to her. As she would have wanted, the whole of her clan was celebrating her life in Michigan (her home state) a few weeks ago. We decided that this week’s cocktail should be in her honor. This is a sweet, but spicy take on a Manhattan and an Old-Fashioned, using fresh Michigan cherries and (what else?) Wild Turkey.
Cheers, Vi!
Shallots Web 