Turkey in the Rec Room

I got back from my mom's just a bit ago. It was a good trip with much accomplished. My brother and I were talking last night about crazy family holidays of years past. This one from Thanksgiving 2001 is worth sharing. I am thankful that we proceeded with our plans despite it turning into a chapter from Running with Scissors.

It had started out as a good plan over the phone with my brother. The idea was to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner and then transport it to SC. It had been a really hard few months for our family. We were in the midst of a layoff post 9/11, I was a first year teacher, Brian was in his last semester of college, our sole remaining grandparent had been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer, my dad had been in and out of the hospital with diabetes related illness over the year, and then on Nov 7th my mom had fallen over dad's wheelchair and broken her leg in two places. No one felt festive nor wanted to plan some giant meal of days of yore.

It seemed the right thing to do given all the miserable circumstances. So we planned in secret to surprise our families with a traditional meal at mom's rehab hospital.

I had arranged with the nurses to use the floor rec room for us to celebrate. Everyone was surprised we had pulled off Thanksgiving even if it was at a hospital. Then I started pulling out the food- or the lack therof. I had forgotten the Turkey as well as half of the food I had made along with the plates and utensils. Brian and I resorted to raiding the nurses kitchen and rounded out our meal with crackers, heat and eat soup, and ice cream.

It was the last time our family was together on a holiday and it was one of the best meals ever. I am thankful that all things considered that day jello never tasted so good.