A selfless chef has traveled six hours, just so they could cook the favorite meal of a terminally ill customer one last time.
Brandon Jones' 72-year-old mother-in-law was in the final stages of cancer when he heard that she would like to have her favorite meal one last time: tempura broccoli from Ekiben in Baltimore.
However, because she was based in Vermont, six hours away from Baltimore, it seemed like it would be nothing more than an unfulfilled longing.
But determined to make her final wish come true, Jones emailed the owners of Ekiben, Steven Chu and Ephrem Abebe, and asked him for the recipe so that he could cook it for her one last time.
As per the Washington Post, Jones said: "She had always told us, 'When I'm on my deathbed, I want to have that broccoli. in fact, when I was packing on Friday to drive up to Vermont, I called my mom to see if she wanted us to bring anything special and she jokingly said,' 'tempura broccoli!'"
However, instead of simply replying with the recipe, the chef decided to go one step further and offered to travel all the way from Baltimore to Vermont to make the meal for Jones' mother-in-law one last time - completely free of charge.
"'Thanks for reaching out. Ephrem and I are more than willing to meet you guys in Vermont and make the food fresh so it will be just like what she remembered," Chu replied.
So Chu and Abebe traveled to Vermont, buying the ingredients ahead of time, and stayed in an Airbnb before making the 72-year-old's favorite meal one last time.
"To me, it was a huge honor to be able to help fulfill the family's wishes. This is about her, not us. There was a lot of good, positive energy in doing this," Chu said.
The family decided to surprise the terminally ill woman by asking her to open the door when Chu and Abebe arrived, and she immediately recognized the smell of the tempura broccoli as well as two other tofu dishes that they had prepared.
"My mom kept saying, 'I don't understand - you drove all the way up here to cook for me?' She was so happy and touched to have that broccoli. She couldn't believe it," Jones said of her reaction.
"My mom cried later about their generosity and so did I. They made so much food that she had it again the next day for lunch. It's something we'll never forget - I'll carry that positive memory with me, always."
