The first words out of my mother's mouth when she awoke on Thanksgiving morning were, "I don't feel well." Those are not what we wanted to hear especially on a day of gathering and feasting. Nor are they words I wanted to hear as I turned over in bed hoping for another few hours of sleep. The neighbor's new puppy had been crying all night and in this apartment building it sounded as though the dog was in our bedroom!
Mom settled back into bed after taking a remedy hoping to recuperate. At about noon there was a gentle knock at the door. "Do you have a roasting pan? We need one for the turkey." It was my sister-in-law who was preparing the bird. "Just a few more hours to Thanksgiving dinner and you don't have a pan?! I thought those things take the whole day to roast." This morning was reminding me of one of those calamitous weddings where just about everything goes wrong!
Mom is pre-diabetic which means she's okay as long as she stays away from sweets and too many carbs, which is not what she had done recently. On an outing with my sister, unbeknownst to me, Mom had bought her favorite, "spearmint leaves" candy, and then when she and I went shopping for Thanksgiving appetizers, she added a box of chocolate covered cherries to the cart, her absolute most favorite candy. I protested, pleaded with her, cajoled her, expressing my concerns, especially so close to Thanksgiving as she reached into the box for a chocolate. "Please don't have one now, they'll be so many desserts for dinner." But she insisted and promised to have "only one from time to time." I learned shortly after, that "from time to time" meant one every evening and a few spearmint leaves in between (those leaves ARE fabulous, made with orange flavor as well!).
At home, we unloaded the shopping bags of groceries and as I placed the cans of sweet potatoes in the cupboard I spied a half empty bag of spearmint leaves. Oh oh! It did make me laugh though, remembering how she's loved them since I was a little girl, and that was a while back! Comprised mostly of corn syrup, sugar - 28g per 3 pieces, with yellow and blue color! Yum!
And so our Thanksgiving dinner didn't include Mom this year. Instead it was held upstairs, at my brother's, while Mom was below, ill, in bed, fast asleep.
