An unusual event occurred in the Pickering House only a few years after it opened. The event was a Thanksgiving story that I don’t think will be made into a movie on the Hallmark Channel. It was, however, a nice illustration of how the importance of the Thanksgiving Holiday brings out the best in everyone.
When someone staying for a few days in the Pickering House has an unusual request, we will address it. What adds a little color to this particular event is that it occurred in the late afternoon on Thanksgiving Day.
The woman on service, “Kay”, was spending a few days at the Pickering House. She was depressed due to being alone on Thanksgiving. Her family was celebrating the holiday as they always did at her sister’s house several States away. Being alone in her room Kay just wasn’t in the holiday mood.
In the late afternoon of that particular Thanksgiving evening, one of our STNAs walked into her room and almost gleefully asked her if she was ready for a nice plate of turkey, dressing and mashed potatoes. Kay turned and looked out the window at the dark grey sky and said that she wasn’t the mood for “that type of food”, as she called it. Our kitchen staff had prepared a holiday banquet for all of the staff, visitors and people who were staying at the Pickering House on Thanksgiving.
“Well, what would you like? Our kitchen staff will prepare anything you’d want.”
“They can’t fix what I want.” After a pause and with a sarcastic tone of voice she said, “All I want is a pizza and a beer.” After a sympathetic conversation with our STNA, Kay decided upon some vegetable soup.
Leaving Kay’s room our STNA got to thinking that maybe this is one of those we’ll-see-what-we-can-do situations. She knew that beer was out of the question because of the medication the woman was taking….but….we can order pizza for her!
“Well, why not?” she thought.
The staff also thought it was a great idea and they all pitched in. They ordered several pizzas and a couple of six packs of root beer. When it arrived, the staff brought in extra chairs placing them around the woman’s bed. They began the “feast” by bowing their heads and giving thanks for the food they were about to receive.
What a Thanksgiving dinner that turned out to be! One of the staff members who attended said it was probably the most profound, meaningful prayer before a meal she had ever said. One of the nice things about this Thanksgiving dinner was that when done, no one had to do the dishes or clean the kitchen.
FAIRHOPE celebrates life up to the very end and this Thanksgiving “banquet” of pizza and root beer was a good example. In the gathering of our staff around the bed of someone in the last stage of life, there was joy, there was love and there was life. Yes, life with joy and giving thanks for each other’s presence in that room.
In the words of Charlie Brown’s friend, Marci, “Thanksgiving is more than eating, Chuck. You heard what Linus was saying out there. Those Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that’s what they mean by Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown.” (– A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Charles M. Schultz)
Thanksgiving can be the nicest of the three holidays because it takes the littlest preparation. It can be celebrated extravagantly or it can be celebrated simply. The day’s festivities can be loaded with tradition or planned as painlessly as, “Well, why not?”
Happy Thanksgiving!!
