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YVETTE ANDERSON: Master of the Feast

 

Here are dishes Yvette Anderson might have served someday in her dream restaurant: corn pudding, barbecued chicken, fried chicken, turkey wings, collard greens mixed with kale and turnip greens, banana pudding, lemon meringue pie, peach cobbler. And her daughter Rasha McMillon's favorite, yellow and green squash with onions.

For years, members of White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, where Mrs. Anderson prayed, praise-danced and tended to the elderly, were nourished by her feasts. Mrs. Anderson, 53, hoped to give the public a taste soon after she received her bachelor's degree in hotel and restaurant management next May. In the meantime, she was saving her earnings from two jobs: as a waitress at a soul food restaurant on weekends, and during the week, as a keyboard specialist at the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, in the World Trade Center.

Orphaned at 15, Mrs. Anderson pressed upon her children the importance of self- reliance and hard work. But she was also a joyous, generous woman, animated by faith. On the night of Sept. 10, she braided her daughter's hair, saying, "I don't know why, but I have a nervous feeling." Then, Ms. McMillon said, "She called a friend from church and talked about loving God."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times