If the togetherness doesn't kill you, the turkey just might
Um ... OK.
I showed it in covert fashion to Bobby and begged him not to eat turkey today. I really talked up the ham, which I observed in the fridge, in sign language and quiet whispers to the children. It was also naked, but at least cold, whereas the poor turkey was getting a tanline with the sunlight from the kitchen window baking it in the sink. The turkey lounged at room temperature all night long and did make it to the oven this morning. After that, it went into people's stomachs. There's just no telling where it is tonight. The broccoli/cauliflower medley was quite good, though. No danger of me overeating today, I promise!
To top that off, Brady noticed a mousetrap on her kitchen counter. She asked me if I thought the kids would be in danger of finding it (it was by the stove) and I told her that Brady had noticed it but we'd had a little chat. She said she'd killed two mice in there this week and wanted to make sure none got into the pies, so she put that trap out. Then she put the pies (uncovered also) on top of the microwave. Of course, any hungry mouse need only have sauntered over to the sink to have a tasty bite of turkey, but who am I to criticize? It's a good thing I found that out today, as opposed to last night when I was making pallets for the boys on the living room floor ...
Another quick story from our Thanksgiving: Bobby's cousin Joe is HIV-positive. He lives next door to Bobby's grandparents, in a small house that he shares with his mother, who is Bobby's aunt. Joe, who is gay, is a very sweet person. Recently he regaled me and his 87-year-old grandmother during our last visit with pictures of the flowers his boyfriend planted outside their bedroom on Valentine's Day. I digress ...
Joe has been having breathing trouble since the summer (along with a few blackout/seizure-type episodes) and has been treated twice for pneumonia. On Monday, he started wheezing and having horrible digestive
trouble, so they called an ambulance. He gets to the hospital, thinking he'll be treated for pneumonia again, and his mother tells the doctor about the seizures, which made Joe really angry. So when they order up a scan for his lungs, they add one for his brain. Yesterday they told him he had a brain tumor. No sugar coating that diagnosis, just point blank: You have a brain tumor. And you have HIV, and you weigh 95 lbs. Not a good combo.
Bobby had called his Granny while we were in Jackson, telling them what time we'd arrive. Margaret told us that Joe was in the hospital IN Jackson (45 minutes from their home) and what had happened. I made Bobby go to the hospital before we left town. He was not happy with me, but you know we wives do what we have to sometime. So we find his room and the nurse tells us that only one adult can go in, the other and the children must remain outside. Bobby elects himself (thankfully without prodding this time.) He has to put on gloves and a mask before going in. He stays about 10 minutes, for which I was grateful, and says Joe is really, really angry. He forgets to add the part about himself being really, really angry that his cousin is a homosexual, that Bobby can't understand that and that his whole family is in turmoil now.
The kids colored him some pictures for Joe's mom to take to the hospital today with a plate of the lovely turkey (which may just finish him off, now that I think about it) and I sent a card letting him know we were praying for him. Because of the holiday, he's in limbo until Friday, when they'll do a CT-scan on his head. They think he also has TB instead of pneumonia, and have some sort of apparatus in his hospital window venting all the air inside to the outside. It is just a terrible situation, a whole lot of grief in that family. Bobby's grandparents raised Joe and his older sister, because his mom practically abandoned them to live with a boyfriend in
California. She went on to have two other children by two other men. Bobby's grandparents are very old-fashioned people (even though his grandfather had that I-discovered-I-had-another-adult-child saga a few years ago) so the HIV-part has been tough on them. It's going to get even tougher with that aspect if they try to treat a brain tumor, I'd imagine.
So Thanksgiving wasn't exactly jovial, although it was good to see his grandparents and his grandmother's brother, who was there. Older people just give such a perspective to holiday gatherings. I can only hope I have more awareness of social situations than great-uncle J.D., who told a charming joke about an elderly person having an accident 2 feet outside their bathroom.
Anyone else? Bueller??
