It's a funny thing about life - you never know how it will turn out. I first met Bette Hagman, a.k.a. "The Gluten-Free Gourmet", in the Spring of 2000 at a Buffalo, NY celiac support group meeting where she was the featured speaker. I had no idea then that she and I would become close enough to be remotely considered friends. I'm sure that I didn't think that she considered me her friend until I received a letter from her written while she was on vacation. I was enamored with Bette from our first meeting in 2000. Here is a picture of her and I from that chance encounter:
Bette Hagman and Lisa A.Lundy (me), May 2000 - Buffalo, New York
Bette was one of the nicest people you could ever come to know. Sometime after meeting her I wrote her a thank you note for being the pioneer that she was and for providing the cookbooks that she had published. At that time, I had an 11-month old son who had huge issues with gluten. He also had issues with dairy, eggs, soy, and other foods, so I had to modify any of Bette's recipes, but they at least gave me a place to start. At some time later, I decided that Bette needed a fan club and I called her to ask permission to print up some t-shirts with her name on them. She chuckled at the idea of a fan club or even a t-shirt, but she did say yes. I was elated. I had some t-shirts printed up that looked like this:
Bette Hagman Fan Club T-shirt
I promptly sent her t-shirts for her family and friends. It gave me such joy and pleasure to walk around in this t-shirt! I think she got some pleasure in it too! Sometime after my daughter was born in 2001, Bette and I began talking about the issues I was having in feeding my daughter. Bette Hagman was the first person ever to say to me that "Your daughter would not be alive if it were not for your expertise and efforts." I'll never forget that call or moment as I was really still in denial about how fragile and sick my daughter was. I remember telling Bette not to talk like that. But, that was one of the things that I loved about Bette - her direct and candid manner.
A memorable phone call came when Bette called me all excited because she had had ice cream for the first time in decades! I was elated for her, but wondered where she had gotten the ice cream! She laughed while explaining that my insistence that she try making non-dairy ice cream using Dari-Free (by Vances Foods) had finally gotten to her and that she had just made Raspberry Ice cream from one of the recipes that I had mailed to her! At least we seemed to get a thrill out of it. Another time Bette called me to ask if I would take a call from a man by the name of Josef who had a Bakery in New York City. Of course, I told Bette yes, but immediately followed with the most obvious question - why would he want to talk to me after all she was the Gluten-Free Gourmet! She laughed and retorted that I was the gluten-free, dairy-free, everything else free guru and she couldn't help him.
Bette had her issues with her health right around the same time that things got really, really bad with my daughter's health and I was spending an extraordinary amount of time at the doctors office, so we were a bit out of touch. I reached out to her in 2007 before she passed away and had a nice telephone conversation with her. She was the same Bette. For all her efforts in the gluten-free market, I applaud this great woman - my mentor and my friend. I think of her fondly and often! The gluten-free world is better because of her extraordinary efforts. She was an extraordinary woman. God Bless her! Feel free to share your thoughts on how Bette's work and legacy has helped you!
Love,
Lisa
Comments