October 20, 1977, that was the year my sister was born. Then we found out that my mom’s father had cancer and he died January 13, 1978, I remember it cause I was just entering 10th grade and everything was a big adventure. 

The thing I remember most about my grandfather passing away was that several people brought Chicken Noodle Soup to my Grandma’s house. I mean four or five BIG Bowls of it! Just chicken noodle soup!

Fast forward to now. My wife’s mother was found dead in her apartment on Monday, June 16, 2008. She was 78 years old. They think her actual time of death was around 5:00AM the day before. (Father’s Day) 

My wife’s mother was hard to get along with, I don’t mean that disrepectfully, but she had her own way and it was usually easier to just let her be. We tried many times through my 20 years with my wife to make things go right with her mom but it never lasted long. I feel kinda bad about that, but there isn’t anything we can do about it now.

Tomorrow is the memorial service for Lillian. It is sad that she is gone, because I am one who thinks maybe if we had tried one more time we might have gotten it right. But I know that is not how it works. Sad as it is to say this, she died alone because she put herself in the position of being alone. She chose to be the way she was and eventually everybody she came in contact with just drifted away.

Today I was out for about a half an hour and when I pulled up outside my house a friend of ours from our old Church was dropping off something on my porch. It turned out to be two big pans of fried chicken! Thank God is wasn’t Chicken Noodle Soup! that would have been too wierd!

I immediatly thought of my Grandpap, and all that chicken noodle soup. Chicken!

A little later on our neighbor Cheryl and her daughter brought us some stuff like lunch meat and chips and she knows how much I love coffee, so she bought me some of that too. (No chicken noodle soup!)

I guess the point of all this is to say that when someone dies, someone outside that persons family circle is always there to deliver the one thing that we don’t think about at a time of loss. Feeding ourselves. It is true, we have not sat down to a meal since Sunday at Cracker Barrel when we met the family for Fathers Day.

Tomorrow at 1:00PM we will all get together and remember Lil, even though she was hard to get along with she deserves that. People are coming from far and wide to be there. I just hope that someone can remember a good thing that she did. I know that one of the things she did a long time ago was keep my wife’s step brothers together when she devorced her first husband. She would not let those boys be separated! That was a good thing. She did the right thing then, and when she married my Father in Law Thomas, she did the right thing again. Cause my wife is the most wonderful woman I ever knew, and since I believe that we are carbon copies of our parents, I know that my wife’s heart of gold came from her mother as much as it came from her father.

Food and Death. We all have to eat and we all have to die. Someday we will know the truth about the point of life. I know the truth of some things, and I am looking forward to seeing a lot of people who have left us all behind!

Jack Servello June 18, 2008, 10:46 PM

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