Family tradition usually has my children and grandchildren sitting around our dining room table enjoying good food, and each other’s company. Not this year.
Due to the shelter-in-place edict, because of the Corona virus pandemic, we are not together for Easter dinner, for the first time in my children’s lives.
My daughter called and said that her husband, Lance, bought a ham on his last venture out, and was cooking as we spoke. They were having a version of our traditional dinner. My husband and I were planning on finishing the left-over spaghetti I’d made the night before.
Later, Lance texted and said that the ham was almost ready, and Sue would bring by our dinners. When I told my husband, he rolled his wheelchair to the table and patiently waited for his upgraded Easter dinner.
Sue set our dinners on our porch bench and walked away to keep a social distance. I grabbed the dinners, and the beer she brought and carried them to the table. I returned one can of beer to the bench and asked Sue to join us by our kitchen window.
“Great idea mom.”
I served my husband, opened the kitchen window, and Sue and I enjoyed a beer while we watched Joe dig into his dinner. I hadn’t seen my daughter in a couple of weeks, we had texted and phoned every day, but seeing your kid in person is always the best. Sue urged me to eat while the ham, broccoli and potatoes were still warm.
I stood at the counter and ate one of the happiest Easter dinners ever. I realized it wasn’t the food that made the day special. It was the company.
Submitted by Josephine Mele, Contra Costa County – Moraga.