mosses monday XIV...

there was a roaring fire in the fireplace, the old artificial tree (with the 2 ft. trunk) was aglow and trimmed with silver tinsel and homemade angel ornaments, and mrs. moss and i were standing in the kitchen preparing nuts, popcorn, bugles, and toddies for john and mr. moss.

mr. moss always had a noon-time toddy
and an early evening toddy because he
had parkinson's, and the drink seemed
to calm down his shaking hands a bit. his
noon-time toddy was usually a bloody
mary and his evening one was bourbon
and coke...

anyway, i was standing at the moss' kitchen sink washing out katherine's sippy cup and looking out the window at a barge traveling by on the cold ohio river. mrs. moss walked over next to me to hand me a can of coke to fill katherine's cup.

"isn't george wonderful, dani..." she said looking out the window.

i smiled.

"can you believe he had that tree dug up in henderson and had it brought all the way down here and planted..." she continued in her gravelly sophisticated voice.

i continued to smile but wasn't sure where our conversation was going.


"i don't much like being in florida for the holidays, but george said it isn't time to go home just yet. i'm so happy that the sugar plum, you and john are here, though. and, i cannot get over that tree..." she faded into thought.


no, we were not in florida; we were in
henderson, kentucky, standing in the
kitchen of the moss' home which was
situated on the ohio river. mr. moss
had not had this particular tree nor
any other tree transplanted in florida.
but, i, like mrs. moss, agreed that george
moss was pretty special and was extremely
happy that john, katherine and i were
there celebrating Christmas with the
mosses...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we took the drinks and "do-dads" into our guys and katherine. these were precursors to every meal for the mosses. they WERE the meal for katherine!!! (as written previously, katherine was sure that mrs. moss was the best cook on the face of the earth, mmmm... popcorn and bugles;).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we had made reservations at hunan's, our local chinese restaurant. when we arrived, they had our table waiting. mr. moss took mrs. moss' coat, and john took mine and katherine's. we three girls seated ourselves. then our guys joined us.

the restaurant was rather crowded with mostly familiar faces. mrs. moss didn't seem to notice. anna was the owner of the restaurant; she was the one who showed us to our table. she also chose to wait on us.

as she brought mr. moss' black coffee with a straw to the table, she asked if we would be having "the regular". we all smiled and nodded, "yes." anna, returned with the rest of our drinks and let us know that our soup was on its way to the table.

a group of people a couple of tables over from ours were getting ready to leave. they donned their coats and headed towards our table. the group happened to be a few of your fellow parishioners. after mr. moss greeted them with a warm, southern gentleman's, "how do you do???", we all arose and exchanged hugs, hand-shakes, and happy holiday wishes.

as the group walked away from our table, mrs. moss, crinkling her beautiful little nose, smiled at mr. moss and said, "george, i can't believe how many people are down here... here at the holidays?"

"mommie," mr. moss was having trouble understanding and accepting mrs. moss' alzheimer's, "where do you think you are?"

i reached under the table and took mrs. moss' soft, warm hand in mine as she replied,

"florida."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(to be continued...)

love and God's blessings,
dani xx

ps you will find earlier entries in ascending order on my side bar entitled, "our love story":)