Please excuse our long absence. There’s been a lot going on and I’ve not been in the mood. Picking up where we left off, it was a largely quiet week when I got back. We had dinner at Manu & Mathilde’s on Friday along with Gael & Corrine. It was a nice night and we had aperos in the garden and dinner outside. Manu made a African peanut chicken with rice and other stuff. We didn’t stay long since I was still tired after the long journey earlier in the week.
We had dinner at Anne & Andrew’s the following night along with Francoise and three of her friends. This came as a bit of a surprise to Andrew but he managed to prepare enough food that it wasn’t a problem. The friends are a couple that Francoise knows from uni and their teenage son who were visiting from Provence. We started with a lovely salad and had magret de canard for the main. It’s been so long that I can’t remember the dessert but I’m sure it was excellent. We had a relatively early night and were home just after midnight.
On Monday, Chuck was found unresponsive in the early morning. The rest of the family spent the day with him and he died later that evening. I’m thankful that he didn’t suffer at all and went peacefully. I booked tickets for Will and I to go back for the funeral and we left the following afternoon. Anne & Andrew drove us to Angouleme where we got the train, stayed overnight at the airport and then flew via Reykjavik the next day. We had dinner with Mom at Doolittles and then we went to Ron’s with Mike and saw some friends.
The funeral was on Thursday morning at the synagogue. The rabbi gave an excellent eulogy, made up of his own stories, and many of our own. He had met with the family earlier in the week to share our memories and I was able to participate via Facetime from the train. Afterwards, we rode out to the cemetery where we laid him to rest. It was a lovely day and that made it a bit less melancholy. Then we went back to the synagogue and had lunch with just the family.
There were a few other out of towners including Steve’s siblings who came from Illinois. Pam and Beth drove up together the previous night and John and his wife Denise drove up separately. It was great of them to come and I’m glad I got to visit with them a bit. The other out of towner was my 1st cousin Bill who flew in from the East Coast. He lives in Maryland and is married with three kids who are roughly the same age as Ben and Suzy’s. Chuck had one brother, Dan who died last year and Bill is his son. He has a sister who lives in Mpls but she is estranged from the whole family and didn’t show. Dan’s wife Roz died many years ago so Bill has been without immediate family for some time.
I mention that because Bill had an interesting story to share with all of us after lunch. He and his sister were both adopted as infants. A few months ago around his 50th bday, he received a mysterious letter requiring him to confirm his identity. It turns out his birth parents wanted to make contact if he was willing. After giving it some thought, he decided to go ahead and has now met them a few times. They live in Winnipeg and have three other children, all married with three kids (two boys, and a girl, same as Bill). So Bill now has new parents, siblings and lots of nieces and nephews that he never knew about.
After lunch, we all went back to Mom’s and chilled for a couple of hours, playing games and chatting. It was nice to spend some time with just the immediate family. There was an evening Shiva service at 7 and we had dinner at the synagogue beforehand. There was a good turnout for the service and I enjoyed meeting people that knew my Dad. There were a number of people that I hadn’t seen in years as well. I chatted with Addison who is going through a bit of a rough time at the moment. Dessert was served, but no alcohol, which Will found odd. We left around 8 and then went over to Mike’s for a bit.
We were up early every morning, starting before six on the first day and making it til 8 later in the trip. We chilled out on Friday morning and then Mom took us to Cecil’s deli in St Paul where we met Ben & Ione and Suzy and the girls minus Evie. It was the first anniversary of Grammy’s death so we all went to the cemetery to visit the family graves. It was a nice day and we discussed family history and told stories to the girls. We had passed a farmer’s market on the way so doubled back to it and bought a boatload of fresh corn. Afterwards, we stopped at the store and got supplies for dinner, which I made while Mom went to synagogue for evening services. It was a vegetarian dish made with filo pastry and filled with greens and cheese, which we had with the corn that was sweet and delicious. We went to Mike’s for a bit after the meal.
On Saturday, we took advantage of rising early and headed to the Mall of America, now the 2nd largest in the world. It was early enough that we found a good parking spot and it happened to be at the closest entrance to the Sketcher’s shop. I wanted to get a new pair of shoes, having fallen out with the ones I bought the previous trip. I found some I liked and we were in and out in under 20 minutes.
Next we went to Wayzata, a suburb on lake Minnetonka where we met Car at an upscale brunch place, right on the water. Instead of a basket of bread, you get a giant caramel roll as a free starter. The thing is huge and served with fruit and this is before you even order breakfast. Will finally had his eggs benedict and I had chicken and waffles, a soul-food speciality that was served a bit differently than expected, but was still tasty. Car is doing fairly well since her Mom died last year. Her eldest will be starting her second year of Uni at a school nearby, having transferred from an out of state school.
Mike and Keli took us to a bbq at Aaron and Sam’s, friends of theirs who live nearby. It was Aaron’s birthday and they have an annual party to celebrate. He is a welder and made a smoker, an oil drum on it’s side with a chimney attached, all mounted on a trailer. He made ribs, pork and chicken but sadly, we had dinner plans to didn’t get to partake. Of course, it was the one day it rained, and quite heavily at times. They had some canopys for the garden but mostly, everyone stayed in the garage. There were around 20 people in all, a few I knew in my 20’s that I hadn’t seen in years.
We stayed a couple of hours, then Mom picked us up and we went to Suzy and Steve’s for dinner. They have a smoker that Steve used to make a lovely brisket, which was served with crunchy salad, corn and fruit with cheesecake for dessert at my request. Ben & Ione and the boys plus Kylie, Miles’ girlfriend were there and with so many teenagers, there was nothing left when we went back for seconds. The salad was extra delicious and I have now made it a few times, with some minor adjustments. Mom dropped us at Mike’s on the way back and then he took us home a few hours later.
On Sunday, we had breakfast with Mike’s parents at Perkins, a local chain that’s been around for years and a favourite of theirs. I missed seeing his mom the last time so Will and I enjoyed hearing all her stories, including those about her husband who was sitting in the next chair. She’s 81, still full of energy and keeps busy volunteering four days a week. That afternoon we hung out with Mom and played games for a few hours. It was nice to spend some solo time with her.
We had dinner out that night with the whole family at an Italian place to celebrate Steve and Evie’s August bdays. We sat at a big round table with a lazy susan which is convenient since the food is served family style with large portions on big platters. We had salad, baked pasta, chicken parm, salmon and another pasta dish and nearly finished everything. We had cocktails and Will had a glass of California red, his only one of the trip. At the end of the meal, we said goodbye to everyone since we were off the next day. The kids are growing up so fast it was great to spend time with them over the course of the visit. We went to Mike’s for a bit that evening as usual.
Our flight was Monday night and Mike came and got us in the morning. Sadly, the shoes didn’t work out so we had to make a quick trip to the mall to return them. I had some papers to sign concerning Dad’s estate so that was another stop. Afterwards, we had lunch at a place nearby that has a special way of ordering. They have a regular menu but for certain items, there are notepads with the various options for that item. We each had burgers with choice of meat (Will had chicken), cheese, toppings, sauces and side dishes. You can order this way for pizza, salad and Bloody Marys too. Afterwards, we went back to Mike and Keli’s and hung out with them for a few hours before he took us to the airport.
We each got a row to ourselves for the flight to Iceland, which would have been great except for the screaming infant in the row behind Will. I managed a few hours of sleep but he didn’t. The flight to Paris was uneventful and we got in early when it did us no good since we had a 3+ hour wait for the train. This was on time, so Will’s luck won out over mine and Anne & Andrew met us at the station. I had planned ahead and left dinner in the freezer so we had that and chilled out. Will hadn’t managed to sleep at all during the journey so we crashed early and slept nearly 12 hours.
Wednesday was errands and catching up on work plus a trip to the supermarket. We had dinner chez Francoise on Thursday along with Anne & Andrew. It was a public holiday and she didn’t make it to the shops before they closed so the meal was a bit flung together. We started with cheese and pate for apero, and a main twice backed potatoes, stuffed courgette and a tomato salad. This was followed by cheese and plum crumble for dessert. We played Continental afterwards and Andrew won, which is so rare it merits mentioning.
We had a bbq here on Saturday night with Anne & Andrew, Francoise and Lewis. Pary was invited but as usual, didn’t end up coming. I made Suzy’s crunchy salad for the first time, Mom’s cauliflower with tahini sauce plus bbq chicken legs and courgette slices and nectarine cobbler for dessert. We sat outside and chatted and then after the folks left, the four of us played cards for a bit, Continental again this time with Lewis as the victor.
Will’s going to fill in the details for the rest of August in his post. I will close with some final thoughts about Chuck and his passing. I haven’t been too grief stricken and I that’s largely because I got to spend so much time with him at the end. We got to say everything we wanted to one another, especially good bye. Since we didn’t live in the same place, I’m used to not seeing him but we spoke every few weeks. Usually, a new blog post would prompt him to call so it will be strange not to hear from him after this one.