Aunt Tika, Queen of the Kitchen

There's an old joke about a guy who dies and visits his friend on Earth: "Hey, good news!" he says. "They have baseball in heaven! The bad news is you're pitching for our team tomorrow ."

Does anyone else think Aunt Tika is cooking for the angels right now?

My Aunt Tika passed on Monday morning, and before you feel sad for my family you have to realize that this is a wonderful occasion. A woman who has spent her entire life devoted to her church and her family has accomplished a goal of Christianity. She lived a life of preparation for her union with our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as her reunion with her husband, Maher, who passed on a few years ago.

I could spend time writing about Tunt Tika's devotion to the church. I could write about her service to her family, like when she would shuttle back and forth between Egypt and California to take care of both her husband and her children (and grandchildren). I could tell you about her love for the kitchen. Here's one story: over the last few years, in the middle of each week, she would make enough food for my dad to last through the weekend, and she did it because my dad loved the cuisine that he grew up on in Cairo. I would get home from work and our fridge would have party-size containers full of fried cauliflower, beef stew, peas, carrots, and my dad's favorite, liver. Understand that she also cooked for herself and three of her kids scattered throughout the Bay Area. She has always been like that. When we visited her in Egypt, she would spend all morning making FEASTS for us, and then start cooking again after lunch. Amazing food. No one topped her in terms of quality AND quantity.

But I'm not a writer so I made a video instead in her memory. I hope you enjoy it.



Pray for us, Tunt Tika!

For Coach Price

My friend Brian wrote me an e-mail this morning to say that our JV football coach, Gary Price, had passed on from this world. Coach Price was very active with students at Monta Vista in other capacities as well; he worked in food service at the school, coached the women's basketball team, even coached baseball before I was in high school. My words will never convey quite as much as what Coach Price taught us personally, but I want to relate a few stories about him that can say a little about the kind of man he was:

1) We were not a very good football team our freshman year. We started off the season with a bunch of losses, and we were losing at halftime to another team (I don't remember which one). Coach Price finished up his halftime speech, and concluded with this: "Alright. We're down 14 to 0. We're gonna come back and win this game, and we're gonna start doing things right!"

That in itself wasn't special; every coach motivates his team in a similar fashion. The difference with Coach Price was that he was relentless in his optimism. Every Thursday, he would tell us: "Alright. We're oh and [however many games we lost]. We're gonna win tomorrow, and we're gonna start doing things right!" Even up until the last game at halftime, when we were 0-9, Coach Price kept a rosy outlook on the season and on life. I always appreciate that worldview, that we can't change what we have done in the past, but what's important is what we do from this point on in our lives.

2) A personal story: I quit the football team my sophomore year the weekend before school started. I hated practice and I didn't see myself playing very much anyway. Coach Price found me in the locker room that Monday and asked me why I quit. He didn't make any promises about playing time (I was a backup on offense and defense), but he said he needed me on the team.

Why would he go out of his way to keep a player who wasn't going to help him that much during the season? I'm not going to make the argument that he did it so a husky 14-year old would understand the idea of commitment, but he taught me something regardless.

3) A fun story: In that freshman football season, when we couldn't win a game, Coach Price gathered us all together one Thursday at the end of practice. We all took a knee on the JV football field, and he started talking to us (and I'm paraphrasing from memory):

"You guys are on the football team. You guys are supposed to be the stars...you're supposed to win. But who's gonna want an oh and nine team? Who wants to date an oh and nine quarterback?

(he looks around, and in the distance he takes note of a few students walking towards the pool, and he cracks a smile)

"See those guys over there? Those water polo boys in their speedos? Those guys are gonna get the girls. Those water polo boys are gonna steal our women!...Shoot! You guys gonna let that happen?"

By this point, the entire team is cracking up, Coach Ray is doubled over, and Coach Price is restraining his smile, trying to keep things light on the eve of our last game. That's my personal lasting image of Gary Price, keeping us in good spirits when we needed it the most.



Thanks Coach Price for all your hard work. May God bless and comfort your family and friends still in this world!