I wrote this article for Queen Latifah’s website a year ago, and wanted to share it with you today and tomorrow. It’s rather long, so I’m dividing it into two parts.
My mother died early on a Monday morning. It was November 23, the week of Thanksgiving. While everyone else was preparing to be thankful for all their blessings, we were a house of mourning. We decided to have Mom’s funeral the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so that relatives and friends would have time to be with their families for Thanksgiving, then travel to be with us as we remembered Mom.
We spent Monday and Tuesday of that week planning the funeral and ordering flowers. The rest of the week seemed as though it would last forever. We were a grieving family in limbo, and a major holiday was looming in the meantime. As the oldest child and a mom myself, I had no idea what to do for Thanksgiving dinner. We had to eat something, but we were all too exhausted to make a turkey dinner. Plus, we were still at that point in our grief where we just didn’t care what we ate.
Thanksgiving came. And with it came a whole Thanksgiving dinner, made for us by a woman from my parents’ church. She made two turkeys that day, one for us and one for her own family. Her thoughtfulness and her delicious meal helped us get through that difficult week.
In this world we live in today, some have lamented that we aren’t connected the way we used to be. Even in the age of the internet and social media, there seems to be a social disconnect from what is important. Families have become more spread out; does our “village” still exist, especially in the cities and suburbs that seem to sprawl across our country? Since I’ve been the recipient of many meals over the years, I decided to ask others if they have ever received meals.
Have you ever received a meal when you needed it? Does your village still exist? I’ll be publishing the rest of this article tomorrow.
