“We are, of course. We’re celiac sisters.” Shauna Ahern

If you are not familiar with Shauna Ahern, from Gluten Free Girl and the Chef then you should be.   There is not much I could say that would do her cookbooks and blog justice so I will just say go check it out for yourself.  The recipes, the writing, the photos, all so wonderful.

You will see on a recent post titled, Like Sisters, Really,  there is a very kind story about my bakery and book after her and her lovely family came to visit me at the store .  I am so very grateful for the post, great write up and free press for business and book .  For me though,  none of that matters.

When Shauna contacted me and said she was coming for a quick visit to NY and wanted to stop in bakery to meet me I was thrilled….. and nervous.  We had spoken over social media a few times but that was it.  I wasn’t nervous to meet someone new, I was nervous to meet HER.

Shauna is someone I looked up to greatly.  What she didn’t know, and still doesn’t, is that her cook book, Gluten Free Girl And The Chef,  was the first book I read cover to cover when first diagnosed with celiac disease.  It was more than a cookbook to me.  It was a lifeline to the other side of this crazy illness.  It literally gave me hope and helped me hold on to my sanity.  I was newly diagnosed, sick as a dog and oh so scared.   Yes its a cookbook but so much more.  She was like a new friend who had been were I was and was not only surviving but flourishing!!

I remember closing the book and crying thinking I didn’t have the knowledge of cooking or the strength to even start to figure out this new world.  But day after day I would go back to the book and look at it, each day gaining more strength.

After you read her blog , LIKE SISTERS, REALLY,  you will see the above quote at the end and understand.  All the wonderful things she said in that blog are AMAZING and again I am so very grateful but they pale in comparison to those words, WE ARE, OF COURSE. WE’RE CELIAC SISTERS.

I thank you Shauna for the blog post but also for being one of the first voices to say, THERE IS HOPE.

Isn’t that what we all need to hear sometimes?

THERE IS HOPE

This is a community of kind people, giving people, people who “get you” and what you deal with.   We are SISTER and BROTHERS to each other because of this common link called celiac.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again, it was this community that helped me when I was lost and that is why I continue to return the favor.   Pass on your story and your knowledge.  You never know who you will help.

Be Well

Jennifer