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Picture Mayhew and Cookbook

Times Record, June 2003:
Simply Barb's cookbook for sale locally
By Robert Blackford/The Times Record Editor

"Simply Barb's, An AAT Woman with Courage" is what the cover on Mercer County's newest cookbook reads but it is something more than a cookbook. For former Times Record assistant editor Barb Mayhew it's an ingredient in the recipe for a new life. Mayhew went to the doctor two years ago and came home on oxygen after being diagnosed with Alpha1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. Now she waits, for a bilateral lung transplant, her lungs at 15 percent of what should be their normal capacity. Her bottle of oxygen close at hand, inhibiting her but enabling her to move around.

The cookbook opens with the simple recipes of a child, Mayhew's four year old granddaughter Madison gives her take on good eating with "Grapes": 'I like 'em cold. Get in Great Grandma's refrigerator and steal the grapes. Wash them and put some in a bowl, eat them when she isn't looking.' "You don't really want to try all of her recipes," warns Mayhew. The first one calls for baby powder. I think she meant baking powder." Most people using a cookbook to help fund a bilateral lung transplant might be a little skittish about the first recipe calling for white baby powder, but for the people who know her that's what makes "Simply Barb" unique. Madison's entries into the cookbook were not planned but when the little girl came up to her grandmother and asked, "You want my 'cipes' don't you grandma?' who could leave them out. A photo of Madison appears with the recipes for cookies, grapes, pizza and Spaghetti O's with meatballs. The cookbook is lined with 290 recipes (only one with baby powder) collected by Mayhew from friends and family from at least eight different states. Also included are many recipes Mayhew used herself during her many years as a caterer. Mayhew operated a catering business; Barb's Catering, in Mercer County for several years and traveled as far away as Kewanee to work. Mayhew remembers: "It was homecoming dinner in Kewanee at Wethersfield High School five or six years ago. Autumn Kuster, my sister-in-law's daughter, my niece-in-law' was in charge of it and her brother volunteered me. I got him back. I made him help. He said, 'This is not fun.' We served 140 people."

Mayhew has the odd number of 341 cookbooks to sell. "I ordered 300, they added 10 percent and threw in additional 11 copies." She is selling them for $10 piece at The Times Record office and Farmers State Bank. The bank sold out of their first batch the day they were delivered and had to call back and ask for more. Mayhew said Laura McGinnis sold 60 during Rhubarb Fest at the United Methodist Church and Mercer County Hospital. Barb also takes orders by phone at 582-2168. They are $12 if she has to ship them. Besides Madison's Delights, the cookbook lists Appetizers and Beverages, Soups and Salads, Vegetables and Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Meat and Poultry, Breads and Rolls, Desserts, Cookies and Candy and This and That as other headings in the table of contents. While most of the categories are self-explaining 'This and That' gives readers helpful hints to homeowners and cooks. Such as: For a clogged shower head, boil it for 15 minutes in a mixture of 1/2 cup vinegar and one quart water. Also noted is a treatment for skunk odor.

Mayhew joked that she was thinking about starting to rate hospital emergency rooms she has been in. "I've become a connoisseur." I've been to Mercer County, Ottawa, Loyola and Peoria." About her favorite Mayhew said, "I like them all as long as they let me out." The trips to different doctors all have one thing in common according to Mayhew. "They always have to take two x-rays of my lungs. My lung is so long it folds over on itself and it appears as a mass. That's why I scare all the doctors in Illinois. They have to redo the x-rays every time I go in." Mayhew is fifth on the waiting list for her blood type and body size. She is in the process of moving her listing from a hospital in St. Louis to one in Chicago. In the next few weeks she will be moving in with her sister, Nancy Rumler, near Chicago. When the appropriate donor comes she will receive the transplant at Loyola of Chicago Hospital. "She was willing to sell her house, quit her job and move to St. Louis for me," said Mayhew. "What a sister." For the past 16 months Mayhew has been staying with her mother. While the bilateral lung transplant won't cure Mayhew, the disease took 45 years to get as bad as it is now. The new lungs will allow her to live a productive life. She hasn't been able to work since leaving The Times Record in 2002. When she does something the oxygen level in her blood drops to the low 80's. Just sitting still it is about 96. When the oxygen count drops it adds to the stress on the other organs of her body, including her heart.

Since Mayhew was diagnosed her mother, sister Judy, brother Darryl and niece Diane have tested positive for the gene which causes the disease but it hasn't progressed to a dangerous level in them yet. It is something they will have to watch the rest of their lives. Alpha1 can affect the lungs, liver or skin and in some cases multiple organs.