That's a toss up. The first one that came to mind was the morning my older brother shipped out to basic training. We went by a Waffle House before we dropped him off. It was awkward and painfully quiet. We knew everything was changing. I was losing my brother. My mother was teary-eyed through the whole meal. The house would be different. There was no small talk that could be had.
The second worst... I don't know if this is a Catholic thing or what, but when my grandmother passed, my grandpa arranged for a luncheon at the church. He just kept telling us to eat because he didn't want the food to go to waste, but the hall was filled with mourners trying to make polite conversation. It was so sad. I was sitting with my family, but none of us spoke. And, the people who did come by to talk to us were all expressing sympathies. Later, when it was just the family, we were able to lighten up some and talk jovially about our memories of her, but that meal... gosh, there must have been more than 100 people there... All sad... all crying... murmurs. You could have heard a pin drop amid the sniffles.
You really paint a vivid picture with that Waffle House scene. I can feel how painful it must have been. As for the eating/grieving combo, it's an interesting phenomenon. Guess it's all about trying to find comfort but somehow "Aunt Jane just died, have a turkey sandwich" doesn't really cut it.
Ahh when I read the question I was thinking more about the circumstances than the food.. I remember one Christmas.. my two sons were away, one with his fiance, (he's not with her now which is even sadder) and one with his friend.. so it was just me.. my husband was there but we were separated and my daughter.. It was a pretty sad setting to start with, without my sons, and with the separation.. but then husband went and upset my daughter by saying something mean.. so she stormed off and refused to eat the meal... It wouldn't have been real fun sitting opposite husband to eat anyway but I was so mad at him for upsetting daughter on this day, of all days and ruining what semblance of a family meal we were trying to have.. That was a miserable meal for sure!
ON a Christmas meal theme.. that was perhaps also the occasion of another sad meal... when we were first married we once had beans on toast for our Christmas meal..
I can definitely relate to those far from ideal holiday meals. Plus there's always the impression that most other people out there are having the world's most wonderful time. Grrrrrrr..........
Well my on again off again relationship had a few times when my girlfriend (now ex wife) broke up with me just before the rent and bills had to be paid. I would be heartbroken and eating ravioli sandwiches for a while, LoL.
LoL! That was a long time ago way before we got married. She got some people to take just about everything out of our place. I had a bed and a small tv left and I had a bunch of bills and just whatever was in the bottom cupboard. So I started inventing meals. Ravioli sandwich or syrup on toast hmm...LoL! Then she came back like all the other times and I had to go move all of our stuff back.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at September 5, 2017 6:57 AM MDT
That frozen thing was pretty depressing. My husbands grandmother tried to feed me corn bread with milk poured over it for dinner. That was all too!! I gagged and composed myself enough to simply say that I wasn't at all hungry. This was the trip to the country for me to meet them. They liked me anyway.............
It wasn't the food, but the circumstances. I was in the hospital with two broken arms and had to be fed like a baby. I didn't know how long it would be before I could feed myself and of all the things I needed help with, that one bothered me the most. Fortunately, the surgery on my right arm the next day, allowed me to lift a fork to my mouth.
I actually have posted about it on here before. It was almost exactly a year ago. The left arm was so badly broken that I needed a total shoulder replacement and I am doing pretty well.
You know, the going to dead people's homes after funerals to eat and mingle and talk about "how good he/she looked" well, that all just creeps the shit out of me. I have only had to make decisions about one dead person's service and all there were were photos of her....happy ones. No casket, no urn, no preachy preach,,,,just people who loved her taking turns standing and telling a story about her. I could not speak but not because I had nothing to say. Then the family went to lunch at a very nice Greek restaurant and I found myself having to teach the young people that there are many places where no phone should be in sight and this sure as heck was one of them. A couple of days later I saw a picture of me at the restaurant on one of kid's Facebook. I told her to delete any and all photos of that day and she did.
carbonproduct 