Two Ladies at Lunch

I had lunch with a friend today. We met about half-way between our two houses at a newish restaurant. We both got there at 1pm and noticed a sign on the door. It said.....Closed to the public ...private party today. We were disappointed... to say the least. We must have looked like we were sad, because the manager came out and said that he could fit us in, they had a small booth near the back. We told him how far we had come and he said, "Oh, you should have told me right away." The restaurant was full of people...all ages. We wondered what this group could be celebrating on a Monday afternoon. We sat down and looked at the menu. Now, you have to know this about us, we love dessert. We planned very carefully... our strategy was to split a pulled pork sandwich and have a cup of tomato basil soup. Then we could order key lime cheesecake. We giggled when telling the waitress about our plan. She went right along with us and brought us the sandwich on two plates with sweet potato fries and onion strings for garnish. As we started eating, suddenly the music began to get louder. My friend looked around and said, "Is there a DJ here?" It was quite loud...Italian music from back in the 40's and 50's. I expected to see Frank and Dean walk in the door. We both chuckled again. People started walking up to the buffet and filling their plates. We hardly had a conversation between us while this was going on. So much to watch and listen to. An elderly woman was smiling and walking around hugging everybody. Men embraced in long embraces...one man rubbing the other man's bald head. It seemed like a joyous occasion. We wondered again what they were celebrating. The waitress said they were out of the key lime cheesecake, so we chose another. While we waited a little girl came down the aisle pushing a little car. She smiled at us. My friend said to her, "Are you having a party?" She nodded her head and got very friendly with us. Her daddy come over and scooped her up and started to take her back to her seat. I said, "What's the occasion...a celebration?" He said, "No, a funeral." I said, "Oh, I'm sorry." and was biting my lip to keep serious. When he was out of hearing distance...we both broke into laughter...a funeral, why didn't we guess? They were all dressed in black. So much hugging and kissing. ....You know how sometimes you get the giggles at the most serious time? We just couldn't stop. Here we were, two ladies in our 70's with the nonstop giggles. We stayed at the restaurant for a couple of hours, after all they were closed to the public. Talking about all the news in our families. How Christmas was, new baby news, grand kids, most everything else. We saw that the crowd was thinning and the last of the funeral party were going out the door. We decided to leave too. It was a lunch I'll never forget. The time we had lunch with the Italian funeral party.

Balisha