Skip to main content

An Empty Seat Filled

A handful of years ago, an older gentleman that my whole family knows, lost his wife of over 50 years.  Her passing was pretty sudden and I remember being in shock when I first heard she had died.  The hubby and I went to her viewing to pay our respects.  When it came time for some prayers, I looked over and saw that there was an empty seat next to him.  I waited a few moments to see if anyone was going to sit next to him and no one did.  I decided to go over and sit with him.  It just didn't seem right that he didn't have anyone next to him.  We were unable to go to her funeral, but I kept thinking that there must be something else that our family could do to help him through this time of grief.  Since I love to cook and bake, the most natural thing for me to do was to do that.  Making him a meal and taking it over to his house would have been nice, but then he would be eating it by himself. I decided that I wanted to invite him over to our house for dinner.  I always make more than enough and our friend had very few food dislikes, so I could pretty much make him anything :)  He seemed very happy to come over for dinner that first time.  I can't remember what I served that night, but I do know that he was very appreciative.  When he was getting ready to leave and was thanking us, I said something like, "this isn't a one-time deal, we want you to come back soon for dinner!"  I think he was a little taken aback, because I'm pretty sure he thought it would just be that one time.  We invited our friend to dinner several more times after that first time.  A few years ago, he met a very sweet woman who would eventually become his wife.  The hubby and I went to his wedding and our friend never stopped smiling the entire time.  His new wife is super nice and the two of them make a great couple.  I had to really restrain myself to not be crying all over the place.  Now that he's a happily married man, we don't see him as often, but that's okay, the empty seat at his dinner table is now filled.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 20, 2013 at 9:38 PM

    This is so sweet Cathy, thanks for sharing it -- Maureen, Detroit News

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cathy B.August 20, 2013 at 10:16 PM

    Thanks for taking the time to comment!

    ReplyDelete
  3. IlseAugust 26, 2013 at 8:12 AM

    This is awesome!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Those "Steps" to Independence Can Be Hard

We are heading towards 600 orders for Dominic's business. Since our long-term goal for Baked Goods By Dominic is having a "brick-and-mortar" and hire those with disabilities, it is essential and imperative that I continue to teach him all parts of the business. Since I prompted Dominic for so many years for speech, he has become "prompt dependent." What that essentially means is that he will look at me for a prompt, like, "what do you do next?" I do that one a lot. Dominic has been going to a private speech therapist for over ten years and she reminds me often that Dominic usually will know the answer, if I am patient and wait for him. That has been a very hard habit to break! Dominic has an incredible memory, so I put it to the test this morning. I didn't write out the steps, I wanted to see how much he could do completely on his own. We have a customer picking up his order today, but the only thing that had been done is putting the cookies into t...
1 comment
Read more

Why We Pursued Guardianship of our Son with Autism

Last Thursday morning, my husband, Dominic and I went to our county's Probate Court and had Dominic's Guardianship Hearing. My husband and I are Co-Guardians, and we were granted "Partial Guardianship," which means Dominic can make some of his own decisions (future educational and vocational placement options, what to wear and how he wants to spend his free time), but my husband and I will make his medical, health care, legal, contractual and major financial decisions. The subject of Guardianship in the disability "world" has been and continues to be a controversial and divisive topic.  I was a panelist for an Autism Conference this past summer and presented on what it's like to have a child with Autism. Towards the end of my presentation, I mentioned that Dominic had just turned 18 and that we were going through the Guardianship process. When the attendees could ask questions, the first person that went up to the microphone started telling me that I was...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presume Competence

Since we have traveled outside of the United States since Dominic was very small, we have had to get him a Children's Passport every five years. Since his current one expires in February of 2024 and he is now 19, we had to apply for an Adult Passport. I don't know why my husband and I picked Dominic's first day of school and Michigan State University moving in their students, but the appointment was yesterady at 3 p.m. We had gathered all of the documents needed and then went into a special room in the East Lansing Post Office just for Passports. The three of us sat down and the clerk asked Dominic his age. He said, "19." Since we were also getting his picture taken for the Passport, he went into a separate room, where she took a picture of him and then let him look at it to make sure he liked it (it will be his picture for the next 10 years)!  He said he did, so he sat back down with us. The clerk filled out a bit more of the paperwork and then she let Dominic s...
Post a Comment
Read more