We picked up Dad for dinner on Saturday past, and this week we thought we’d try something different and take both Mom and Dad out for dinner at the same time. They have been divorced 30 something years now but have always been able to maintain an amicable relationship, which has been a blessing for us and our family for sure. Since Larry passed away this past March (Moms husband after my dad) we have still tried to keep up our weekly (at least) dinners or lunches with Mom, even though she lives in the basement and we may bump into to her more frequently. The sharing of meals just gives us a chance to spend a bit more time with her, something we won’t have forever of course. She also doesn’t seem to mind being with or around Dad and thanked us sincerely for asking her along.
We went into Trail for Chinese food, it is one of those meals that we don’t seem to have too often, and everyone seems to enjoy it when we do. We got a large round table, probably big enough for 8, and being only 4 of us we had ample elbow room. I dished up Dads first, from the buffet, I thought he was the most likely one to complain if he wasn’t happy. I also got the buffet, but only after serving him his WonTon soup, and also waiting for Mom and Mo to receive their combination dinners. We all ate with a relish.
Unfortunately the comments didn’t come just from Dad, in fact I don’t recall him really complaining at all except tor some of the buffet food being cold and his meatballs were too spicey. Not at all?? I guess his complaints didn’t seem to be too significant, or I was too aware of my Moms concerns when her prawns came out with sweet and sour sauce on them, or Mo’s comments that her stomach was upset after dinner, or that the waitress just scraped our leftovers indiscriminately into containers after supper. It garnered a “tsk, tsk”, and a comment “I just won’t eat them now”. It seemed maybe Dad was the quietest of the bunch. It just made me not want to go out to dinner again…..