Hilton Head Island has been missing a little bit of its sweetness since April. That\u2019s when Jeanette Cramm, the island\u2019s \u201cCookie Lady,\u201d stopped baking. The 79-year-old was frying bacon in her Hilton Head Plantation home when she fell and broke her foot. When it happened, she thought she\u2019d baked her last batch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really messed me up. I couldn\u2019t walk and I was in terrible pain,\u201d she said. What followed was a painful series of months away from the kitchen doing what she loves: Baking for the troops.<\/p>\n
In 1990, Cram started baking cookies to send to U.S. troops stationed overseas after then-President George H.W. Bush read a letter in a televised speech from a soldier asking for \u201ccookies and letters.\u201d Cram and her network of bakers across the country called \u201cTreat the Troops\u201d have sent eight million cookies to deployed troops since that speech. But it all hung in the balance after Cram\u2019s fall. She spent months learning to walk again and cycling through different rehab programs. She found a SYNERGY HomeCare caregiver named Julia Marshall \u2014 someone who knew how to help her without making her feel judged or coddled. \u201cShe cared for me in a very kind and calm way,\u201d Cram remembered. \u201cI was a mess and I didn\u2019t want to be here anymore. I felt like I was in my first childhood, it\u2019s embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After months of intensive help at home and pushing her to recover, Marshall got Cram back in the kitchen. She\u2019s back baking and doing what she loves. Cram admits she has taken a back seat in the Treat the Troops organization. Younger people have stepped up to organize the baking and shipping. That\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to be, she said. But her 30-year commitment still inspires her to spread love and kindness in the world. Cram remembered the call she got from a soldier\u2019s father after his son died overseas. \u201cHis son had gotten my cookies and even talked to him about them. He loved them,\u201d she recalled somberly. With Marshall\u2019s help, Cram is back baking and touching lives even from across the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose soldiers have made a commitment to us and they deserve a commitment from us,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like the love of homemade cookies. It\u2019s love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nothing like the love of homemade cookies BY KATHERINE KOKAL UPDATED MARCH 15, 2021 1:16 PM Hilton Head Island has been missing a little bit of its sweetness since April. That\u2019s when Jeanette Cramm, the island\u2019s \u201cCookie Lady,\u201d stopped baking. The 79-year-old was frying bacon in her Hilton Head Plantation home when she fell and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n