It’s Thanksgiving Day. Claire and I have planned a smaller-than-usual gathering. This year we decided not to invite any church members, as we often do – to keep it as just a family gathering. Still, we have about fifteen around the table, including three of Claire’s siblings and their children: her sister Eva and her two kids, her brother Victor from Baltimore and his two kids, and her sister Ramona from New York. There’s also a friend of Ramona’s whom she invited at the last minute (this violates our family-only decision, but one guest we figured we could handle).
I cooked the turkey as usual, along with its stuffing and gravy, and Claire took care of the other dishes, with help from various family members. In these days when I have been experiencing lower energy levels than usual, I find myself wondering whether this is due to my physical condition, or to depression.
As we sit down at the table for our usual Thanksgiving grace – a task which (for some reason I’ve never figured out) falls to me, even though Claire is also a minister – Claire suggests a new procedure. Each person, she announces, will think of the person to the left, and then say one thing he or she appreciates about that person. I’m sitting to the left of Victor, a proverbial "man of few words." He says he’s thankful that I’ve always been there for members of the Pula family, in times of difficulty. He calls me "the rock."
Little does he know...
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