When we leave this world, we leave a lot behind.
Mostly, it’s the memories people have of us. But some people leave behind a lot more than that.
It might sound weird, but some people like to leave recipes on their graves.
I suppose some people are just that proud of their own recipes.
Well, this woman on TikTok is showcasing recipes straight from people’s gravestones.
View this post on Instagram
That’s right. 33-year-old Rosie Grant has a food-themed TikTok, but what sets hers apart is where she gets the recipes.
Grant finds them on the tops of gravestones, left behind by people who took their recipes to the grave.
When you pass away, it’s nice to leave behind something to remember you by.
Even better if it leaves a sweet or savory taste in people’s mouths, right?
Rosie Grant’s studies led her to the University of Maryland.
There, she found a cookie recipe in a nearby graveyard.
Outside the building were the Congressional Cemetery and the grave of Naomi Odessa Miller-Dawson, a woman who passed away in 2008.
There was a curious message on her gravestone. It was no prayer or life quote.
Instead, it was a recipe for cookies.
Finding a cookie recipe was quite the discovery for Grant.
The recipe was for spritz cookies which she’d never heard of.
View this post on Instagram
She says she prepared them like sugar cookies when she wasn’t quite sure.
She met Naomi’s surviving family: her son and granddaughter, to let them try her attempt at Naomi’s recipe.
Naomi would always prepare them for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It’s like a little piece of Naomi still lives on!
Grant has a lot more recipes to share from other gravestones.
Like a fudge recipe from a woman named Kay Andrews.
View this post on Instagram
Oh, and another one for Red Lantern cheese dip.
Her TikTok handle is @ghostlyarchive, a very fitting username don’t you think?
She’s now prepared over a dozen recipes found on those gravestones.
It’s allowed her to connect with people all over the world who both love food and have lost someone.
View this post on Instagram
I’m sure the owners of those recipes would be pretty happy that they got what they wanted.
Being able to please people’s taste buds when you’re not here anymore is worth bragging a bit.
In a way, Rosie Grant is a scholar of some sort.
She retrieves knowledge from those long gone, and the knowledge she finds tastes pretty good.
“These recipes feel like a more tactile, all-senses-included way to remember someone rather than only using your memory.” – she said
View this post on Instagram
Indeed, remembering someone by their recipes is a lot like remembering them for the songs they wrote.
After all, there have been 2 Disney films touching on this already.
We all remember crying our eyes out in Coco when we heard “Remember Me”.
Oh, and remember when Ratatouille’s Anton Ego remembered his mother after Remy prepared the namesake dish for him?
View this post on Instagram
Memories might seem like just memories, but there comes a time when they’re all that you have left of someone. Then you realize how valuable they truly are.
And a memory that you can taste is even better, right?
Check out Rosie Grant’s ventures into gravestone recipes in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
