The Friday before Thanksgiving my friend’s
daughter and granddaughter moved back in with her after having moved out
several months earlier. The daughter was concerned that the place they had been
sharing with her friend and her two sons had such bad wiring that it was
dangerous.
Oh, sure. Right. As if. My friend was not thrilled
and assumed this was just another excuse to avoid responsibility.
That very night the house in which they had been
living burned! The friend and her two sons got out safely, although one of
their dogs didn’t. But they’ve lost pretty much everything they owned except
for the clothes they stood up in. The keepsakes and photos have been lost, but
the good memories they represent have not.
Every one has rallied round to salvage what could
be salvaged and replace what couldn’t. Parents found school uniforms their
daughters had outgrown, so the granddaughter wouldn’t have to go back to school
looking different. We all know how hard that is for a kid.
Talk about a memorable Thanksgiving celebration!
This year I decided that it really didn’t matter
that I didn’t get the silver polished, and that we ate off placemats rather
than the white linen cloth I have to iron every year. The food was good, the
company was excellent, and we had much to give thanks for.
What matters in the end is love. In my family we
always hold hands around the table while someone blesses the food. My mother
always included thanks that “we made it one more year.” I do the same. This
year we had a couple of close calls.
Last week was my husband’s birthday—two days after
Thanksgiving. Several times last year I worried that he wouldn’t be around for
it. His presence at the table was reason enough for my thanks. I don’t have
much actual family left, but I do have chosen family, the dear friends that I
have managed to accumulate over the years and who are as dear to me as any
blood kin could ever be.
I am hopelessly old fashioned, but even if the men
in the family spend most of Thanksgiving afternoon snoring in front of the
television set while the women cook and serve and clean (and gossip) in the
kitchen, to my mind that’s better than standing in endless lines in front of
some big box store in the freezing cold in hopes of scoring a deal on a big
screen television.
These days we see so little of one another because
of jobs and school and scouts and soccer and baseball and football and ballet
and Zumba classes. We seldom sit down together over a meal. When I was a child
(in the Pleistocene era) we ate every night at the dining room table together.
Roget’s Thesaurus and the Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary lived
on stands in the corner of the room to settle the arguments we got into.
So here’s to Thanksgiving. There have been years
when I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich alone and thousands of miles from
home. Yet I felt the love across the miles.
Who cares about silver polish?
Carolyn-touching post:) I'm so sorry for your friends family, so glad everyone was okay (sad about the dog lost:(). Since getting married, we typically host family get togethers at our house as it fits everyone a bit better, so I've stepped things up a notch...I used to be a takeout girl whenever I had guests, but while I try to make things nice and fun for everyone-in the end it is the time together that matters, so I still use easy cleanup paper plates and napkins:)
ReplyDeleteThis year my family was scattered, all off doing different things. I fixed dinner for only my sister and me, but we enjoyed Macy's parade on TV while our food cooked. We feel blessed that all in the family were well and able to do fun things over the holiday, and that those who returned right after, did so safely. Like your friends' daughter, Carolyn, there were many on the roads who weren't so lucky. We all have much to be thankful for.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post, Carolyn! You said it all - we are surrounded by all we need in friends and family. My husband's situation is often iffy, though we're in a good space at present, and I do my best to always be in the moment and on my knees in gratitude for all I have. Good wishes and prayer heading your way for you and your husband.
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