Remembering T.T.
Tyra Andersen (my Aunt T.T.) died on December, 21 at the age of 92. She was a member of Quincy, Massachusetts Covenant Church, a long-time reader of Pietisten, and a true pietist. She delighted in children—loved them from her heart—and cats, too. I loved to be with her as I was growing up. She taught me to sew and to cook. She lived her life simply and she sang the old Swedish hymns as she went about her cleaning, cooking, and sewing.
T.T. made the best Swedish pancakes, the absolute thinnest pepparkakor, and perfect krumkakor, which she filled with fresh whipped cream! When I asked her for her recipe for Swedish pancakes many years ago, she said she didn’t have one. She learned it, she told me, from her mother and that she made them "by feel." So, one day, I grabbed measuring spoons and cups and paper and pencil and followed her around the kitchen as she made the "platta" batter. I wrote down everything she did and said.
Aunt T.T. probably died with a song in her heart, because one was always there. She lived alone, without complaint, from the time of the death of her husband, Chris, in 1967. The whole family will miss T.T., especially her son, Alan. May God bless her life and memory and may she rest in peace.