Sad and Beautiful World (Original Blog 2004-2008): "Know not what the years may hold"

Steak and kidney pie is good! It’s not something destined to become my absolute favorite meal or anything, but it was quite tasty and Peter was thrilled. My mom was beaming, and rightly so. She did a lot of research and compiled five different recipes to create these masterpieces. She made two, and even went so far as to be decorative with the pastry dough! See the detail on these little leaves? (click to enlarge)

The kidneys were lamb kidneys, apparently, for anyone who is dying to know. I couldn’t even tell the kidney bits from the steak bits in all that gravy. We had the pies with green beans and ‘chips’ (that’s fries for all us Americans).

After dinner we had chocolate birthday cake and Pete received a lovely sweater (jumper!) from my parents. He was a bit overwhelmed, as he’s not been used to receiving anything for his birthday for some time now.

Dinner was followed by a ‘show’. The show? Family tragic-comedy! A call from my father’s cousin, who is in her own pain due to back issues and in need of surgery, to say that she heard their uncle had either had a heart attack and/or fallen—no further details yet available; this in the same week that my great aunt, the cousin’s mother, had broken her pelvis. She is 95 years old. My father made further phone calls trying to determine what exactly happened to my great uncle, what hospital in Brooklyn he might be at, and why the heck his cousin’s children were trying to convince her to drive into Brooklyn that night. Ah, Jewish guilt! A dose of “What if he doesn’t make it through the night? How would you feel then?” and she was ready to start driving.

For some reason—I guess because it’s easier than crying—we were having fits of giggles and laughter in the midst of all this. My father was making cracks that would start my mother and me laughing, and then he would say, “Why are you laughing? This isn’t funny!” which only made us laugh harder. Poor Pete wasn’t sure how he should be behaving. A litany of medical family history listed for Pete by my father was followed with a boisterous “Okay, let’s talk about something else; happy birthday!”

Thankfully, things with my Uncle are serious, but not as bad as earlier thought—a broken neck was one story—he did bust a disc and is partially paralyzed, but it isn’t clear if that is permanent. Things are not critical, we are being told. My parents will stop in to see Uncle Jack tomorrow on their way to my mother’s cousin’s house on Long Island (already planned). I should know more after that.

***
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We may go see Nanny McPhee tonight; then tomorrow night I’ll be meeting a bunch of really cool women for dinner—an event that shall be memorialized in many, many blogs next week!

Comments

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Love the photos! I'm trying to figure out what S is doing with that chip. Putting white vinegar on it? If so, can I just say YUMMY!! And that birthday cake. I think I'm in heaven just looking at it. You're mom did a great job - everything looked beautiful.

Glad to her Uncle Jack is on the mend. Healing prayers to him.

Happy Birthday to Mr. Pete

Posted by: Sheri | Friday, January 27, 2006 at 03:49 PM