It Is About Giving

Jessie, Jen, and I went downtown to One Table - a community-wide Thanksgiving meal that invites anyone and everyone to eat a Thanksgiving meal. Especially important are the people who cannot afford the meal or are unable to prepare the traditional dinner.

The three of us actually delivered meals to 8 people in a nearby city. These folks are shut-ins or just lonely and have no family to eat with. The people we delivered to were very appreciative of the meals.

The first house was an older man who insisted on taking all of the food - a loaf of bread, and two styrofoam meal containers: one with the hot food and the other with cranberry sauce and dessert. We had expected to go in and chat. he would have nothing of that.

The next stop was a small apartment complex. A small elderly woman was sweeping her porch and said as we got out of the car, "I thought that you were going to come yesterday." We brought the food in and she said "thank you and happy thanksgiving." We then went two doors down and dropped off another meal. The man who answered the door was obviously spending the day with the person who we brought the food for - that was a short stop too.

Family filled the next home we arrived at. A happy place with thanksgiving preparations already underway. The woman we went to see was being visited by sisters, brothers, daughters, grands and great grands. They were obviously a close family and actually invited us to stay. Cool. We had other homes to visit and were on our way. I was happy for the elderly woman. Family is what the holidays are about. Being alone would suck.

The stops continued. A middle aged son and daughter, both in motorized wheelchairs, and their mother were in the apartment. A single, thankful elderly lady was at the next house.

Our last visit was the most interesting and saddest. Jen told me the name of the man and it was the same name of a group of grocery stores in the area. Coincidence? We found out that this was, in fact, the same man who owned the stores. That was the interesting part. The sad part was that he told us about his 7 children, 5 sons and 2 daughters, and none of them were there. On the fridge were pictures of grandkids and children but they were absent. In fact he said that his daughter was managing one the the area stores today.

I thought of Harry Chapin's song "Cats in the Cradle" and was thankful for my wife and daughter who were with me in the car. We are family. We were doing something for others. We have memories of this year.

WH