Lunch With Elouise WC 255

Lunch With Elouise
WC 255

Eloise is one of these people that takes tiny bites and puts her fork down after each one. Do you know what really drives me nuts? She dabs at the corners of her mouth with her napkin even when there is nothing to dab. Lunch with her takes two hours.

"We're so blessed this year," she says in her Reverend Falwell voice as she dabs the corners of her mouth.

Eloise lives in an alternative universe. Have you forgotten, Elouise? is on the tip of my tongue.

“What’s your biggest blessing?” I ask, instead.

"To be alive," she says.

Totally clueless!

“How about you, Julia? What’s your biggest blessing?”

“Probably the same,” I say, resigned to her insensitivity.

What time is it anyway?

“I have to cut our lunch short,” I say as I glance at my watch. “I'm sorry.”

“I know it's such a busy time of the year, Elouise says. And then she adds, “What do you want for Christmas, Julia?”

Really?

“Oh gosh, Elouise, I don't know. How about you?”

“Health and happiness.”

That’s what I figured. I get up.

“We will have to do this again in the new year,” she says.

Right.

We hug and do the kiss-the-air ritual.

As I drive home, I think about how my husband’s passing has affected me. Others have forgotten, wrapped up in their own traumas, but I live with it every minute.

“Love you, sweetie,” I say to the heavens, “I’ll try not to be such a scrooge next year. I promise.”