Claire MacClaine's Meat Loaf

It was sometime in June of that god-awful year in which Mac MacClaine lost Claire.  A freak traffic accident had claimed her life on a Saturday afternoon in April as she was going to a wedding.  Mac was to meet her there but instead met her surgeons at the hospital... to no avail.

Theirs was a wonderful marriage… one that you don’t see very often.  Some called it “perfect.”  It had all the essential ingredients; friendship, humor, passion, and respect.  The achievements of their lives and their long term goals had come about in the most natural of ways.  From their early days as a couple, they just seemed to click.  They made decisions together but there was rarely much discussion.  They just seemed to think alike.  They raised two wonderful daughters, now grown and making their own way.  A comfortable retirement was staring them in the face on that fateful day.  Mac had sold his manufacturing company and collected $60 million literally minutes before a massive cargo trailer decoupled from its cab, careened across the highway and ended the life of his beloved Claire.

Claire was a busy pediatrician but she still found time for her interest in cooking.  She claimed it was a great way to escape the demands of the practice.  She also knew that Mac loved a good meal on the table.  One of Mac’s favorites was Claire’s meat loaf.  Now, good meat loaf is hard to find.  Some is stuffed with too much filler.  Some is too bland.  Some just don’t have the right texture… “mouth feel,” as Mac called it.  But Claire’s was just right.  Claire’s meatloaf soon became the most requested meal for family birthday dinners at which the birthday person gets to pick the meal.

So it was one day in June when Sarah, Mac’s oldest daughter dropped by his house in the afternoon.  Sarah and her sister Nicki made a point of seeing their father as often as possible.  Truth be told, they secretly devised a schedule between them to insure that at least one of them was in touch with him every day.  They missed their mother terribly and could only imagine how badly Mac did.  Nicki called such visits “life support,” and Sarah agreed.  But both girls were crazy about their father and welcomed such “duty” cheerfully.

“You know what I’ve been missing?” Mac asked Sarah.

“What, Daddy?”

“Your mother’s meat loaf,” he answered.  “Man, what I would give for one of her meat loaves.”

They were sitting at the kitchen table where so many great meals and good times had taken place.  Sarah glanced over at the bookcase that occupied the corner near the window overlooking the back yard.  “Me, too,” she murmured quietly as got up.  She moved toward the bookcase.

“If you’re thinking there is a recipe for it over there, we’re going to be disappointed,” Mac said.  “She never looked at anything when she was making that meat loaf.  She had it in her head.”

Sarah took a loose leaf binder from one of the shelves.  “Well, she didn’t always have it in her head, Daddy.”  Sarah thumbed through pages and pages; some typed, some written in Claire’s neat hand.  She turned over newspaper clippings containing various dishes. 

Mac watched with a smile on his face as Sarah dealt with Claire’s filing system.  “I tell you she just knew it, Sarah.”

“Hmmm.  Here’s one.”  Sarah studied an old three by five index card.  It was soiled with what appeared to be spilled ingredients from plenty of use.  “I can’t read the first words but the last two are definitely ‘meat loaf.’  I’ll bet this is it.”

Mac’s eyes brightened and he stood.  “Let’s go to the grocery store.  Bring that card,” he said.

An hour later, Mac and Sarah were back and unpacking the recipe’s ingredients on the kitchen counter.

“Let’s make this together, Sarah.  I need to learn how,” Mac said.

“Okay,” she agreed.  “I’ll read off what to do and you do it.  Let’s double it and I’ll call Jim and Nicki.  You know they’ll want some.”  Sarah’s husband had once said he would walk across cut glass to get to Claire’s meat loaf.  And her sister, also a doctor, simply said that she would kill for it.

Sarah watched closely as Mac followed the directions that she read from the card.

The impromptu family dinner happened that night.  Seated around the table with empty plates before them, Mac leaned back in his chair and smiled.  “Claire left us many things,” he said.  “But her meat loaf is sure one of the best.”

“It sure is,” said Jim.

It was Nicki who declared, “There’s a reason they call it ‘comfort food,’ Daddy.”

Learn more about Mac and his family in “FollowingClaire.” 

Click here for Claire’s Meat Loaf recipe.