Last week, Helen McGowan Michaud died. She was the mother of my friend Debbie Maddi, and Helen had been sick for several years. Naturally, I wanted to cook something for Debbie and her husband, Dennis, and from personal experience, I know that during such times, one’s stomach can be very queasy. Unless someone in the family has diabetes, carb-heavy meals, soothing and a little bland, are just the thing, and accordingly I decided to make macaroni and cheese for Debbie and Dennis. I would also make them some bread and bring cucumbers from my little garden.

Helen was born in 1916 in Ashland, Maine. (In time and location, she was not far apart from my grandmother, who was born in 1911 in Caribou, Maine.) An outgoing, energetic woman, Helen raised five children, worked in the grocery store she and her husband co-owned, was a library trustee, a member of the Historical Society, and the Music Booster Club. And Helen played the piano. According to the obituary in the Bangor Daily News, when Helen was younger, “for many years, along with her brothers, she played in the McGowan Family band throughout ‘The County.'” Aroostook county, that is, for readers unfamiliar with Maine.

I had the good luck of not only meeting Helen but also of going on an outing with her, Debbie, Debbie’s daughter, Andrea, and my own children, Dee and Shannon. We went to a place called Coos Canyon, in Byron, Maine. Coos Canyon is a 1,500-foot long gorge where the water sometimes rushes and sometimes is very calm. It is a perfect place for picnics and swimming, if the water isn’t too rough.

I remember how ready Helen was to have fun with us and the children, and even though she was not a young woman then—this must have been twenty years ago—how spry she was, nimbly stepping over rocks and roots. Yet despite her zest and energy, Helen was easy to be around, and this is not always the case with energetic women (or men!).

In Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read, I came across this line about a friend of one of the main characters, someone who “loved life” and had “a great capacity for enjoyment.” That to me, captures Helen. A wonderful thing!

When I delivered the macaroni and cheese, the bread, and the cucumbers, Debbie asked me, “Do you remember the trip we took with my mother to Coos Canyon?”

Yes, I certainly do.