“I have a bacon, cheese, mushroom, and ham ready to go. Jess I think that’s yours.” He said as he slid it from the pan onto a plate.
“I have two scrambled with bacon and toast and two over easy with ham. Those are Lane and Nana Evie.” He called as he moved the eggs onto plates and handed them into Jamie’s waiting hands.
He cracked eggs and started the omelets for Joey, Pauli and Jamie next as he repeated the orders back to them to be sure he had everything right. The Keurig was working overtime as Jess made coffee for everyone.
Soon everyone was at the dining table with plates of omelets or eggs, with platters of bacon, ham, and pancakes in the middle of the table. Everyone held hands, and Ben quickly offered the standard Catholic blessing so everyone could dig in before their food got cold.
During breakfast, Lane took a head count of people going to serve Thanksgiving luncheon with her. As Ben suspected, Evie, Pauli, and Joey were going to stay home.
Ben had stuffed the turkeys last night and would get them into the oven as soon as breakfast was finished. They would leave the house around 10:45 and should return no later than one o’clock, which would give him an hour to get the rest of the meal completed and ready for a two o’clock dinner. Having grown up in the restaurant business had made all of the Bellini brothers good cooks, so Joey and Pauli could keep an eye on things until he got back from serving luncheon.
Chapter 19
It was 11:00 when the six-member Parker-Bellini contingent arrived at Sunset House. Kimber Kay Kellogg, Kay to her friends, met them at the door and hustled them to the Activity Director’s office where introductions took place. Kay explained that the residents had to register for the family meal so the number of people who would be eating in the activity room would be limited to 50 people. Most residents had only one or two guests who joined them, a child, or grandchild, but some had more. Today there would be 20 residents and their guests. Dinner would be prepared by the kitchen staff and would come out on carts containing trays, which would be removed and served to the diners. Iced tea and coffee would be served separately.
Lane and her family needed to decide who would be taking food from the carts and serving the meals, and who would be responsible for filling drinks. She explained that any resident with special dietary needs would have their name on their tray, and those would come out first.
“I’ll check the names and direct you where they go. Otherwise, some of these folks would try to trick you so they could get a regular meal.”
Kay smiled. It seemed that suddenly every nursing staff member on duty was making an excuse to come into the activity room. Word had spread like wildfire that Gabe Greer was in the house and everyone wanted to get a glimpse of him. Gabe was graciously shaking hands with the ones who were brave enough to approach him and smiling, and waving at the shy ones who only peered into the room.
Kay sent Lane and Ben to the lobby with instructions to direct the families to the activity room. There was a coat rack set up in a corner, and as the family members entered the activity room, Jake, Gabe, and Jess took coats and hung them up. Jamie helped Kay direct the families to tables where their resident was anxiously waiting. Jake almost choked trying to stifle a laugh when he overheard one of the guests whisper to another, “Those two volunteers look just like Gabriel Greer and Jessica Lane.” He thought about saying they were Gabriel Greer and Jessica Lane, but he didn’t know what kind of riot might ensue.
Soon, all of the guests were in the activity room and Lane and Ben had joined the rest of the family. At 11:30, Kay began distributing the special diet meals. Jess, and Jamie were serving drinks, Jess held a carafe of decaf coffee in one hand and regular coffee in the other; Jamie held a pitcher of tea in one hand and a pitcher of water in the other. They made their way from table to table filling glasses and cups while Lane, Ben, Jake, and Gabe delivered the meals Kay handed to them. When the meals had all been served, Kay announced a few minutes of silence to allow the residents and their guests to say grace if they so desired. After the meals were distributed, Ben and Gabe each took a pitcher or carafe and made rounds with Jamie and Jess as Lane and Kay stood to the side ready to assist the diners with whatever they needed. As the residents and their guests finished their meals, the volunteers removed the plates and placed them on the cart. Soon, the kitchen staff delivered another cart filled with plates containing pumpkin or apple pie for dessert. Again, Kay directed the special diets to the right resident.
By 12:30, they’d cleared away all of the dishes and Kay thanked Lane, saying that she and her family could go home if they wanted. Gabe asked what the residents would do for the rest of the day. Kay replied that they were supposed to have carolers coming at 1:00, but that they’d called earlier and cancelled.
He looked at Jess, “What do you think? I can play the piano if you’re up for it.”
Kay looked from Gabe to Lane. “He’s kidding, right? A concert by Gabe Greer would cost more than $100.00 a ticket and that’s just the cheap seats.”
Lane smiled and shook her head. “No, I don’t think he’s kidding.”
Jess looked at Gabe and shrugged. “I’m in. You know, my brothers sing and so do Joey and Pauli.” She smiled. “We might not be Grammy award winners, but even without practice, we should be able to pull off a few Christmas carols.”
She pulled out her phone and started making phone calls as Gabe walked to the piano in the corner of the room.
Ben looked at Lane. “Red, if we’re having a house full of guests for dinner at two, I’d better get home. Are you coming or staying here?”
Lane looked at Jess. “Did you get everyone?”
“Yes, Joey and Pauli are both coming. I could use another female voice, but like Ben says, you have a house full of guests coming.”
Kay spoke up, “It’s more of a sing-a-long than a concert. I can sing with them, Lane. You should go home.”
Lane looked at Ben. “I’ll go home with you, but if half the guests are here singing, maybe we should delay our dinner until 2:30.”
Lane waived to Jake, Jamie and Gabe who were repositioning the piano and called, “Break a leg, guys. See you later.”
Joey ended the call and looked at Evie, “You’ll have to excuse us, Evie. We have to go out, but Ben will be home soon.” He looked at Pauli. “Come on, apparently we’ve been drafted to sing Christmas carols at the nursing home.”
Pauli got up and followed Joey toward the garage complaining every step of the way, but Joey turned and held up his hand as if to tell him to stop.
“Like you would have told Jess no.” He shook his head. Thank God, Pauli brought me a change of clothes or I’d be singing in my workout gear. He thought as he took the keys for Pauli’s BMW from the hook and opened the garage door.
Jake called Meg. “Apparently the people scheduled to do Christmas caroling at the nursing home cancelled, and we’ve been drafted to do it, so dinner’s being delayed by half an hour. Ben and Mom are on their way home, and Nana Evie is there, but the caroling goes from one to two, so Jess, Jamie, Gabe, Joey, Pauli and I will be a little late. You and your folks go on over to Mom’s as scheduled and I’ll see you as soon as I can.”
“Okay, I love you.” Meg replied.
Meg knew she should have gone with Jake to serve lunch at Sunset House. They saw each other every night and he had called her as he drove to Sunset House, and yet she couldn’t believe how much she missed him.
Jake walked away from the guys and responded, “I love you too.”