A PERFECT WIN-WIN

A PERFECT WIN-WIN
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 by LAURA B. EDGE

Categories: ADVENTURES / RELATIONSHIPS

PLEASE WELCOME

LAURA B. EDGE

HAVING THE PRIME OF MY LIFE

My husband and I have been married for forty-four years. We’ve been through a lot together—kidney cancer and lymphoma for him, kidney cancer and a heart transplant for me. We have stood beside each other and held hands through thick and thin.

I thought the man knew me.

And then I opened the bulky Christmas gift he placed in my lap.

Pans?

Are you kidding? Pans? A whole box of pans?

“Thanks, Gerry,” I said and set the box aside.

If cooking is genetic, I should rival Julia Child. I grew up in a big Italian Irish family in a suburb of Chicago. My grandmother, Agnes, made homemade bread, homemade pasta, and the best spaghetti sauce this side of Italy. As a child, I used to stare open-mouthed as she stuck her index finger and thumb into a boiling pot of spaghetti, pulled out a pale-yellow strand, and plopped it in her mouth to taste for doneness.

I did not inherit her cooking gene.

In fact, I’ve always been a lousy cook. It’s not that I have anything against tasty food, but there are too many unread books waiting for me by my snuggly chair to waste time in the kitchen preparing it. I cooked for years because I had a husband and two sons who loved to eat. But after the boys turned into men and left to start their own lives, I thought my cooking days were behind me.

And then my darling husband bought me pans for Christmas.

I thought about how Gerry picked out those shiny new pans, wrapped them with love, and placed them under the tree. So, after I unloaded the box and found space in my already crowded kitchen, I experimented with new recipes and attempted once again to become a good cook. It didn’t last long.

I will never be a good cook.

But that’s okay. I told Gerry about my dreadful culinary skills when he proposed, and he’s still here forty-four years later.

The pans were actually his Christmas gift, and that was okay, too. His career was winding down, and he was spending more time in the afternoons relaxing in his recliner. He needed a new hobby, and if that hobby involved experimenting in the kitchen, far be it from me to dissuade him.

So, the Christmas pans turned into a mutually beneficial arrangement. He got to enjoy delicious food cooked in fancy pans, and I got to snuggle in my cozy chair and read another book.

A perfect win-win.

ABOUT LAURA B. EDGE

Laura B. Edge is the author of the Christian memoir, Heart of the Matter: A Journey to Faith, and sixteen nonfiction books for children and young adults. She loves to read, travel, dance, and watch football games. She received her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Texas at Austin and studied abroad with the American Institute for Foreign Study in London, Paris, Rome, and Athens. Laura has taught reading and writing in middle schools and at a community college near her home in Kingwood, Texas. Learn more about Laura at www.lauraedge.com.

https://www.facebook.com/laura.edge.7

ABOUT HEART OF THE MATTER: A Journey to Faith

Laura Edge hears the words, “You need a heart transplant,” for the first time when she is thirty-nine-years-old. Her family has just returned from a joy-filled vacation to Disney World when she develops a cough. The cough worsens, and a team of cardiologists gives her news that tears her world apart. The mother of five-and six-year-old boys must trade Little League games for hospitalizations and her favorite Italian foods for handfuls of pills.

Heart of the Matter chronicles Laura’s journey as she tries to stay alive long enough to raise her children. She learns to trust God for each heartbeat and finds faith in His goodness. A survival story with a message of hope, Laura’s memoir will resonate with anyone facing life’s greatest challenges and most impossible questions.

BUY LINK:

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Matter-Laura-B-Edge/dp/B0F26S5THC/