I fry a slice of SPAM. Grammy’s favorite dish. I remember her SPAM-cakes, her boiled tongues and white sauce, her tuna-mushroom soup casseroles with potato chips, her bottomless vodka martinis with cocktail olives.

The website HealthyUnow.org tells me that the average modern american wife spends about 27 minutes per day in the kitchen, cooking. How many hours did Grammy spend in her kitchen? Is the time spent in your kitchen an indication of how good of a mother you are? 

My SPAM steak is well done. I plop it in a plate.

I eat it silently, amazed by my grand-mother’s incessant dedication to this emotional labor. Was this all just a burden to her? I scrape my plate clean, walk to the sink and wash my dishes. Who else is going to wash them anyhow?

Documentation by Alexis Bellavance