THE HOLIDAYS

The past two days our large dining room here has fed few residents, for most seem to have gone to visit their relatives. Several eat all their meals in their own apartments and others take only one meal a day downstairs regularly. All my tablemates were gone, their families living right here in this town. So, early on I learned to take a book with me. One resident reads every evening in the dining room about thirty minutes before being served. She says she might as well read there as upstairs alone. She reads humorous books, nothing serious. As a student of human nature, I wondered about her proclivity for only fun books.

She was absent the past two days. My guess is she is Jewish. She might have had family in Europe during the Nazi regime. She could have been a small child then. Or even a young adult as I was. If she is Orthodox, she might have gone away just to miss the Christian Christmas celebration here. She might have been holed-up in her apartment rather than in her usual corner in the dining room that from one angle is well hidden from view. This lady is well-liked, a friend of everyone. But a private conversation with depth is not likely.

And so, I have taken up her habit on the rare occasion of eating alone in the dining room: I take a book with me and my magnifying glass.

Oh, you might ask, where was my family during this time. One son and his wife enjoyed our Christmas luncheon here as my guests on Saturday before Christmas. Since then, they have a house full of the younger generations, some of whom traveled some distance to get there, two hours from here. My other son and his wife were busy getting settled in their new location in Los Angeles, where he was recently hired as CEO of an engineering company. But they surely took time to fly to Texas where three of their children live, and where their oldest grandson is getting married on the 29th. They wouldn’t miss that. I haven’t heard exactly their schedule of this busy time for them. I just don’t envy them. ♥