In Memoriam Lyla Louise Lett June 25, 1942–April 30, 2011
My mother represented all that is good in this world. A constant source of positivity and encouragement, she was the hardest-working, most-dedicated mother I have ever known. Among other acts, she made nutrition, environmentalism, animal activism, and sustainability her life’s work and instilled a high value of them in me early on. Common colds were treated with umeboshi plum and bancha tea in our house, not Sudafed. Right or wrong, the idea of health and what we ate were not conversations that were mutually exclusive, so naturally I grew up looking at food as medicine and diet being an overall statement of health and a person’s belief system. People thought my mother was out of her mind for driving ninety minutes to the closest farmers’ market in western New Jersey. Brown rice went into the pressure cooker and onto the stove early in the day to be ready for dinner, and seasonal vegetable–based cooking was all I knew. I can still hear the sound of the stove clicking on as she started working on the night’s fare, only moments after coming through the door from her first-grade teaching gig at the local public school. My gratitude for the love and wisdom she imparted is immeasurable.