A Note on My Aunt Sue

The women in my family on both sides have the tendency to send people leaving their houses with food/treats after an event. I’ve known this for years, as my mom, grandma and aunties specialize in this technique. Perhaps I’ve become a bit to immune to this tradition.

This past weekend my aunt Sue hosted a tea in honor of Maggie’s upcoming arrivial and it was superb in every way. She’d mentioned that she had a box of food for Barry for me to take home. (Of course, right? Since he wasn’t invited to the tea to eat the delicious food, he should have his own specially packed box. Lucky man!)

I didn’t think twice when she mentioned Barry’s food box since things like this have been happening for decades in my family. As I was packing up all the divine gifts from the women in my family Sue produced a cardboard box to fit some bigger things into it. As Cora, Chaya, Sue and I rummaged around packing and talking I was looking at Sue, but not really focusing as she said she wanted the plate back as she placed it in the box next to Barry’s smaller box of tasty delights.

Another anecdote is that cookie tins, plates, trays, anything that holds food, moves from home-to-home in our family filled with riches, only to be cycled through again and again. So, when Sue said she wanted a plate back, I thought nothing of it. It wasn’t until I got home and was giving Barry a tour of all the remarkable gifts for Maggie that I noticed that Sue had put an entire cake into the box!!

How did I miss an entire cake? I was a bit gobsmacked. There it sat – perfectly perched on the plate that needs returning to Sue’s as soon as it is empty. So, Barry and I are working on it, to make sure that Sue gets her plate back. I don’t want to disappoint her or have her start to worry about her plate.