"Only in the Bakery" - Natalie Kellett

While my mother was growing up, her nuclear family would commute to Nebraska on a semi-annual basis to visit their extended family. My mother’s grandfather (my great-grandfather), Bill NImmich, owned a small bakery in the tiny town of Pawnee City, Nebraska. When her family visited Nebraska, they would all squeeze into the humble living space located above the Nimmich bakery.

As my mother experienced these family get-togethers, she saw the love and dedication her grandfather put into his baking. Her grandfather would faithfully wake up at 4:30 every morning to assemble the pastries. Through his adoration for baking, my mother gained her own fondness for the art. When she turned five years old, my mother started working alongside her grandfather in the bakery. Her passion for baking continued throughout High School where she was employed at the small school bakery. At this informal bakery my mother made cinnamon rolls that were famous school-wide.

One early and ordinary morning in the school bakery, my mother was following her regular cinnamon roll baking routine. As she rolled out the dough for the cinnamon rolls, she suddenly felt a presence and looked up and there was her grandfather. She knew at once that he had died, but surprisingly this knowledge wasn’t upsetting to her; in fact she felt quite at peace with the situation. While she continued rolling out the dough, he stayed and unceasingly smiled his enormous, brilliant smile. She was delighted to have him with her because she knew that this was the last time she would ever see him. Eventually his spirit left the small baking room, and my mother knew he had left this Earth. When she went home that afternoon, my mother found out that her suspicions had been correct about her grandfather while she was at work in the bakery.

My mother holds this experience close to her heart because she knew her grandfather came especially to see her baking. Baking was my grandfather’s greatest joy and to see it being passed down through the generations made him extraordinarily happy. My mother has continued her grandfather’s baking legacy and still bakes his special treats today.