Making dumplings helps mother and daughter cope with Alzheimer's, realize restaurant dream

Tarn Tayanuth's fondest memory of making meals while growing-up in Thailand is not eating the food; it's lighting the fire to cook it.

“Me as a kid: Get to play with fire?” Tarn laughs. “Sure!”

Tarn was raised by her grandmother after her mom Toom Tayanuth moved to Canada.

“She moved here first,” Tarn says. “To try and get everything settled down before she brought me over.”

By the time she could join her mom, Tarn was a teenager and found the transition a challenge.

“I was 14 and (it was) probably not fun getting along with me,” Tarn admits. “(But) we learned how to get along again.”

Eventually, mom and daughter found a way to reconnect through a shared passion for food.

For decades, they both worked at the same Thai restaurant, even dreamed of opening their own, until Toom began forgetting orders.

“Now I think back, it’s like, ‘Holy crap! That was not her not paying attention,’” Tarn says. “She was getting sick.”