Monday, December 20, 2004

The Mother-In-Law.

My sweet MIL took us out for supper last night, as she so often does on Sunday nights. She knows we don't have very much money and she likes to treat us whenever she can. Bless her heart, she doesn't have all that much money either and I know it's a sacrifice on her part, but just try to snatch the tab out of her hand! She might be getting a little teensy bit old but she's still Quick Draw McGraw when she wants to be.

(Does anybody else remember Quick Draw McGraw? And his sidekick Babalouie?)

While we were sitting at the table in the restaurant, the conversation somehow turned to auctions. I think it possibly had something to do with the incredible amount of accumulated 'stuff' in our house and in hers, and how we sometimes have to traverse through little tunnels to get from room to room. I mentioned that I didn't have many dishes locked up behind glass; that we used almost everything we had.

She told me that she had a beautiful set of Moss Rose dishes, that her husband had bought for her over thirty years ago, stored away in the bottom of her hutch.

She told me that she had only used them once.

She told me that the one time was years ago, when I came over to her house after an appointment with my obstetrician, and it was pouring rain, and cold, and miserable, and she made supper for me.

I looked at her in wonderment.

"You've only used them once, and that once was for ME?" I asked.

She said yes, that was true.

"Why would you use those special dishes just for me?" I asked her in even more wonderment.

"Why would you have to ask?" she replied.

See what I mean?

She's just simply wonderful.