In a truly touching move, current mom and former English major Jodie Helmes created the most beautiful, thoughtful Facebook post for National Spaghetti Day this year.
“My mom stays pretty active on Facebook,” says Jodie’s son, Max Helmes. “It’s part stream of consciousness blog, part political commentary, part family newsletter. But this National Spaghetti Day post, it was so subtle yet startlingly profound – it really took my breath away.”
Sources report the National Spaghetti Day post, which appealed to pathos, logos, and ethos in equal measure, was vivid and concise, and could be classified as a lyrical poem, was some of Jodie’s finest work.
“The way she tied together the anecdote about eating raw pasta as a child with her sister, reflections on the immigrant experience, SpaghettiOs, the nature of memory, the death of the American dream,” says a Facebook friend of Jodie’s, Michelle Tzara. “It was sobering, yet also undeniably hopeful?”
While readers are unanimous in their acclaim of the post, experiencing Jodie’s National Spaghetti Day status was a bumpy ride for some.
“The post was so long, and the prose so elegant and intentional, that I thought for sure someone had died when I first started reading it,” says Jodie’s daughter, Fern Helmes. “I soon realized that Mom was just writing about National Spaghetti Day because she ‘likes’ Barilla on Facebook and they posted encouraging people to celebrate with their slow-dried noodles.”
“What I didn’t realize is despite no one being dead, I’d still be in tears by the end of that post.”
Just twenty minutes after the monumental status, Jodie shared a Someecards meme about wine, then reposted a “memory” of an awkward photo from Max’s college graduation, proving that a true artist forges on rather than luxuriating in past glories.
“She doesn’t rest on her laurels,” says Max. “I don’t use Facebook myself, and I would delete it, but I know National Doughnut Day is coming up, and I can’t miss seeing what she does with that.”
Jodie could not be reached for an interview, as she was busy thoughtfully responding to every comment on her Spaghetti Day post.
