so much goodness given

The Monday post I had planned for today will silently slide into tomorrow, instead.

Tonight, I simply have to share this.

“It is with great sadness that I inform you that Bette Hagman passed away quietly this afternoon at home. I took her nearly a hundred good wishes messages yesterday. She was pleased to get them and she and the caregiver were reading them before I left. They brought smiles and tears to her. They were exactly what she needed. Any messages that continue to come in will be given to her daughter.

Thank you all for your kindness and support for Bette. I know both she and her daughter appreciated it very much. Bette inspired and helped more people than she will ever know. We will miss her.”

Cynthia Kupper, RD, CD
Executive Director
Gluten Intolerance Group of North America®

For those of you who don’t know, Bette Hagman wrote a series of books called The Gluten-Free Gourmet. Long before there were gluten-free blogs, gluten-free cookies available at coffee shops, or articles about living gluten-free in The New York Times, Bette Hagman worked away in her home, trying to create recipes for those of us who cannot eat gluten. When she began, several decades ago, she must have felt like the lone voice in the desert.

I have to be honest: I don’t often use Ms. Hagman’s recipes. Times have changed, and so have the ingredients. But I did hope that, someday on this journey of mine, I could meet her.

You see, without the work she did, and the books she wrote, I would not be able to walk into a mainstream grocery store in Seattle and buy a pre-made mix for gluten-free waffles (which is how I was able to take the photograph above).

And so I wanted to use this space to say the only thing I would have said to Bette Hagman, had I been able to meet her:

thank you.