National Tell a Story Day

Today is National Tell a Story Day and have I got a story to tell you! This is not a typical story, but it’s a true one about two neighbors who went out to lunch and ending up sharing some tears and laughs.

Wedding Anniversary Lunch

Yesterday would have been my neighbor’s wedding anniversary but God called her husband home last December. I introduced Carole to go with me to Grief Share a few weeks ago and she was happy to go. It was there that she mentioned their 57th wedding anniversary was coming up and she wondered how the day would be with her being alone. I sorta knew how she was feeling so after giving it a thought for a few minutes I then said, “Let’s go out to lunch to celebrate all the wonderful years and memories”.

She loved that idea and as we left Grief Share she sent me two photos from her phone of her, her husband and two grandchildren taken the evening before he passed. I told her I would print them out for her.

It was finally time for our wedding anniversary lunch and we both decided Olive Garden would be the perfect restaurant. What came next was a surprise to Carole. I had framed one of the photos I printed out for her and also brought one of Rich and I. As I pulled them out of the felt bag and put them at the end of the table, Carol had happy tears. I told her we couldn’t celebrate her anniversary without our spouses.

We were greeted by a very nice waiter and started with how are we both doing today. When I told him we were there to celebrate Carole’s anniversary he congratulated us but then I told him the rest of the story. We placed our order, had salad and breadsticks while waiting for lasagna and we both could feel our sweethearts with us as we talked about special memories.

What could have been a sad day for Carole turned into a day of talking about happy memories of her and Stephen and looking at our sweethearts pictures, just like they were with us.

Lunch was delicious and when the waiter came back be showed us pictures of the desserts and we opted to share the yummy looking strawberry cheesecake. Then he said the treat was on him. How sweet is that! Our waiter Jay was so kind and caring and as we were leaving, we thanked him again and he gave us both a big hug! He reminded me so much of my oldest grandson. We told him we would definitely ask for him next time we go to Olive Garden.

Our wedding anniversary lunch turned out filled with delicious food, a few tears but mostly smiles as we shared memories. It’s times like this where we are in the same “boat” and each of us helped the other one out. Carole goes back to her family in Rhode Island in the summer but she will be back home when another session of Grief Share starts and we have come up with a plan to go out at least once a month, either walking on the beach, out to lunch or window shopping. Just something to keep us having happy memories of her Stephen and my Rich and being able to smile because like I tell everyone, Rich may not be here physically but he is here spiritually and in my heart forever just like Stephen is with Carole.

I hope you enjoyed my National Tell a Story Day!