Church Supper

Church Supper She puts salt and pepper on tables covered in white paper from rolls. She always enjoys church suppers - special recipes from different kitchens. She can’t help as much as she used to, but she can put out condiments and butter. She watches the bustle in the kitchen - men and women in aprons making coffee, stirring something in a pot on the stove, crowding platters, bowls, and plates of food on the serving table in the parish hall, all the time laughing and joshing each other. Not like her childhood, she remembers, when men carried in baskets and bowls, set them on counters and stood talking while women did the kitchen work. She loves the camaraderie now that she eats most of her meals with just the company of television. Friends here with whom to converse, old friends who recollect with her events of years back, funny incidents. Food, laughter, lights and music, lovely desserts – she doesn’t bake now. Later, at home, she’ll store the warm memories of tonight’s dinner in her mind’s album of happy times, to draw upon in days to come.