Pour the boiling water over the oatmeal and let stand for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To the oatmeal, add the 1 cup brown sugar (lightly packed), 1 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup butter, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and eggs. Mix well.
Pour into a greased one-layer (9 x 13") cake pan.
Next, make the topping. The topping is baked along with the batter.
To make the topping, in a saucepan put the chopped walnuts (or use pecans), 9 Tablespoons butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, flaked sweetened coconut, and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Heat over low heat just until everything is well blended and the butter has melted.
Drop the topping over the cake batter with a spoon.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake tests done when a toothpick is inserted.
