By Ken Garfield
In this season of loneliness for far too many, a story of grace.
After 31 years in newspapers, mostly at The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, I found a calling writing obituaries, usually in advance, focusing more on a person’s heart and soul than their career and country clubs. I was wrapping up an obituary for an 81-year-old retired elementary school teacher when she mentioned how she “celebrated” Thanksgiving. I ended the story of her life with this vignette.
I share it here. May it bring solace, and a smile perhaps, to those who face the holidays alone.
My client lives in a retirement community in Charlotte, N.C. She lost her mother to cancer when she was 12. She never married and never had children. She’d have loved grandchildren. For Thanksgiving, she decided to drive 4½ hours to her hometown of Williamston, N.C., to share in the holiday meal. When she awakened with a scratchy throat, she begged off, not wanting to spread her germs. Instead, she drove alone to her condo at Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.
Stopping along the way for a bite, the only place she could find open was Bojangles in Beulaville, N.C., population 1,160. She ordered a chicken breast and fries. They were out of chicken breasts. So she ordered two chicken legs and fries. She couldn’t sit down to eat because they were about to close, which explained the employees mopping the floor. That’s how she came to “enjoy” her Thanksgiving meal – a bag of fast food – in her vehicle.
Alone behind the wheel, she did what she has done throughout her life. She gave thanks. Then she drove on.
Ken Garfield is a freelance writer/editor in Charlotte, N.C., and a friend of End in Mind.
