By:
The Dude on the Right
With the passing of my father, and not wanting, yet, to get into some of the
philosophical questions an event like that can bring, there was something that
came up prior to his funeral that I suppose I can understand was important in
the older age of funerals, but in this day and age, especially when my dad
wanted a small, private funeral ceremony, why do some people assume that you
need food and just show up with it, unannounced? And why am I conflicted with
this topic because in the same gesture (by a different family friend) I was able
to remember a dish I love?
Now I’m not saying the bringing food gesture isn’t
nice, but shouldn’t the gesture start with a quick phone call offering
condolences and then tossing in a "If you’d like I can bring you a ham dinner,
complete with vegetables, coleslaw, and a store-bought jello mold in case you
need something to eat?" But no, there it was, the night before, or maybe it was
the night before the night before the funeral (they blend together right now),
that a friend of the family showed up with half a ham, vegetables, coleslaw,
store-bought jello mold, and lots of conversation for my sister to hear. The
issue was that, in the land of the "on the Right" family, we had already planned
for a small gathering of family following dad’s burial by securing a party tray,
which, fine, for this occasion should probably be called a remembrance tray, but
in any case the family refrigerator was already ready to be packed. Somehow, and
God bless Sis on the Right, she found a way to stack, move, renegotiate, and fit
everything in there, including the ham dinner, so that no one would get sick,
and let me tell you, she knows all about the importance of refrigeration and
reheating with
her job in Lunchlady Land!
My confliction on this issue comes because even though the gesture on the
part of our one family friend was nice, but wasn’t necessary, well, a neighbor
baked a small dish of Noodle Pudding, and oh my God, it was so good. I forgot
about Noodle Pudding, haven’t had it in years, and after getting back home found
some recipes on the internet to try (although I should probably just call our
neighbor and get hers, because, can I say it again, it was so good), so even
though one family friend went a little overboard with her food gesture, that
small dish of Noodle Pudding really hit the spot, and as more important in the
time of comfort food was necessary, my mom loved it.
I guess I’m just really confused about sending food to the families of those
going through the loss of a loved one, especially with the joy and
tastefullyness of the Noodle Pudding that came our way, so to alleviate my
confusedness, and because it’s really not long enough for a blog, and because,
during my
"A New Chapter for the "on the Right" Family" blog, I mentioned how my
niece is a rocker, I thought I would include in this post, my niece being a
rocker. Sorry for the sort of crappy video, but I think it really shows
that my niece ROCKS!
BFF and favorite niece – YOU ROCK!
That’s it for this one!
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!