“Sometimes you have to look for the cake in the boot.” -  Lisa Winters

Cake in the Boot

Lisa Winters understands what it’s like to go through difficult times. That much was evident. The emotion was palpable as she stood, speaking in front of a crowd, of mostly strangers.

“My father suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for several years,” she said.

Then she went on to communicate more about her experience and why she was spending time as a volunteer to help others who are going through the same experience.

“Not only did my father have Alzheimer’s Disease,” she continued. “He also suffered from diabetes.”

Lisa’s daughter knew how much her grandpa loved sweets and she thought of him as she was cutting her wedding cake on the day of her marriage. One of the most important people in her life wasn’t there at her wedding, sharing one of the most important events in her life. Her beloved grandfather wasn’t there to share celebratory cake with her.

So, she carefully cut a couple of pieces, the ones right in the center, of her cake. Then, she put them on a small plate, covered the plate in a wedding napkin, and set them aside. She had a plan to share this joyous moment with her grandpa.

Right after returning home from her honeymoon she put the next phase of her plan into action. She removed the cake from her refrigerator and drove the short distance to her grandpa’s home, a memory care facility.

“Grandpa,” she said. “I snuck these two pieces of my wedding cake in here for you. Your nurses won’t want you to have it, so you’ll have to hide it from them. Otherwise, they’ll take the cake from you.”

She held his hand as he ate one of the pieces of cake. She embraced him as she left.

“Don’t forget grandpa. Don’t let them find your cake, or they’ll take if from you,” She said with her brightest see-you-later smile.

The next few months were very difficult for the entire family. Grandpa took a turn for the worst, not long after the cake sharing, and passed away a short two or three months later.

Upon grandpa’s death, Nancy and other members of their family all came together in his room to pack their loved one’s things.

“It was a hard thing for us to do,” Lisa said. 

As the packing day went along, Lisa’s daughter picked up one of her grandpa’s boots. She looked inside and saw something crammed in the bottom.

“There is something in here,” she said. 

She reached inside carefully, not knowing what she might encounter, touching something crusty, wrapped in a wedding napkin. Her eyes filled with tears as she recognized the napkin from her own wedding!

“It’s the piece of wedding cake I asked grandpa to hide!”

Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote, “A great and eternal beauty passes through the whole world, and it is distributed fairly over that which is small and that which is large; for in such important and essential matters, no injustice is to be found on earth.”

Lisa Winters said, in speaking of this experience, “You can always find things to make you smile, even during the most difficult of times.”

Lisa understands what it’s like to go through difficult times. That much was evident. The emotion was palpable as she stood, speaking in front of a crowd, of mostly strangers.

Then she said, “Sometimes you just have to look for the cake in the boot!”

Watch as I host American Dream TV which will begin streaming on Apple TV and Roku in August 2023