5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: coffee

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I might be somewhat abnormal, but I did not grow up with coffee in the house. Neither of my parents drank coffee, so I never really had much experience with coffee. 

We lived right next to my grandmother's house, and when we were small, we went to sleep over quite often. My grandmother drank tea throughout the day, but every morning she made herself a cup of coffee. We were never allowed to have any, because she said that coffee was for adults. 

I will never forget the smell of her kitchen when she made that coffee, and I used to love sitting with her in the kitchen while she drank her coffee.  Just so I could smell it. There is just something relaxing about the way that coffee smells, and even today when I smell coffee, I think of her. Isn't it weird how we associate smells, and songs with people?

Later when I grew up and went away to university, I still couldn't acquire a taste for coffee. My friends always wanted to go to coffee shops but I always felt like the odd one out. They drank coffee, but I ordered anything else, except for coffee.  They probably thought I was weird, but I have never really cared what people thought of me anyways. 

My friends used to drink coffee at night to stay awake to study....tons of it, but the smell only reminded me of earlier times, and it took a lot for me to concentrate to study. Coffee was not allowed in the library so I used to spend hours there studying. 

Later when I finished my degree, and started teaching, teachers used to drink coffee during their breaks in the staff room. Teaching is a very tiring job, and because we talk a lot during the day, instead of a glass of water, I started drinking coffee. Perhaps I did not want my fellow teachers to see me as weird, and oddly enough coffee got me through the day. 

We moved down to the coast a few years ago, surrounded by coffee farms. Here I learned the process from where the coffee bean is picked up to where you can have a cup of delightful wonderful coffee. I even bought my own peculator so I could make fresh pure coffee in the morning. 

The smell still makes me think of my grandmother, who used to live with us until last year when she passed away at the age of 95. 

She had dementia, a terrible agonizing horrible disease. When I made her coffee in the morning, she used to say no, she doesn't drink coffee, because it is only for adults. She must have believed that she was a child. 

Now, after she died, I still make coffee in the mornings, and it keeps my memories alive. The house is filled with the aroma of coffee, and of course, my grandmother. 

It's true what they say about the smell of things...