Hi, everyone. Welcome to Thanks for being here, a short weekly pod to remind us of the many

essential and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday, I'll read a submission from a listener

of Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Could be wedding vows or a bat mitzvah toast, a eulogy, or retirement speech.

We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into our better selves and remember

our highest values.

We encourage you to share this podcast each week with one person you love.

Maybe someone you miss and need to bring closer, someone you want to feel your appreciation

or admiration or both.

This is thanks for being here.

This week's thanks for being here comes from a very special person in my life.

Her name is Lena Zendgraf and she is the daughter of my cousin Kathy, who I have written about quite a lot.

Kathy lost her son, the great Aaron Zendrff, in a car accident after his freshman year in college.

And she lives in Charlottesville, which is where my daughter, Claire, went to college.

So I have just had four years of sleeping in her extra bedroom and reconnecting.

Anyway, her daughter, Lena, is a beautiful writer.

She has a substack called Cooking with Littles that I cannot recommend highly enough.

And she is the author of this week's thanks for being here.

An homage to her godmother, Linda, writer, cook, painter, and creative thinker.

We Talk Food.

My mother coached me to admire her.

The painting station by the window with the mini toothpaste tubes of color bent and dried, the bowls of fruit filling the only space to sit

and eat the rusty chairs on her porch. Visiting her Pittsburgh houses felt like entering a

...