For many years, a woman named Ruth came to our homeless meal and passed out cartons of milk and cookies. She was more than 100 years old, but every week she would get all dressed up, in fancy clothes, makeup, and high heels, even if there was snow on the ground. She told everyone that she “was going to work,” and called our head cook her “boss.” When she got her social security checks, she would immediately go to the store and buy these sandwich crème cookies that were a favorite with our people. However, she never sampled them. It got to the point where her dementia was so severe that she couldn’t recognize the couple who picked her up to go to the meal. Yet she was ready at exactly the right time each week. Finally, one of the volunteers said to her, “You should really taste one of those cookies.” She just smiled. The next week, she died at the age of 103...never having tasted even one of the thousands of cookies she gave away.
