Joan sits at the table across from Andrea. “I can’t believe it. I haven’t seen the table in years,” she says, her hands tracing the edge of it. “Oh, my goodness, John.” She glances up at him. “All those months of making this.” She looks at Lauren. “What in the world made you track down the owner of those recipes?”
Lauren smiles, leaning into Travis. “It’s going to sound weird, but I just knew that whoever wrote those recipes really loved her daughter and there was no way that daughter would willingly give them away. And in another weird way, I felt close to all of you. I wanted to learn to cook because of the recipes, and Travis and I have cooked a lot of things together. I actually think I’m a pretty good cook now,” she says, laughing.
“You never know what’s going to happen in life, do you?” Joan says.
TWENTY-EIGHT
December 2012
The doorbell rings, and Travis walks to the front hallway and opens it. “Hey, Travis!” Lauren can hear Larry’s voice on the front porch. “Gloria needed these for the fund-raiser, and I was passing by, so I thought I’d drop them off.”
“Come on in,” Travis says. He takes two wooden keepsake boxes from Larry, setting them down on a side table in the living room.
“I’m sorry,” Larry says. “I didn’t know you had company.”
“No!” Lauren says. “Larry, come in! This is perfect.” She looks at Joan and John. “This is Larry, the man who refinished the table. Larry, this is John and he made this table back in…” She realizes she doesn’t know when John made the table and stops.
“In 1972,” John says, looking at Larry. He steps to him and sticks out his hand. “John Creighton.”
“Nice to meet you, John,” Larry says, shaking his hand.
“And you’re Larry.” John stops, looking at Larry’s face. “Larry! Larry from the hospital.”
“Just Larry from Grandon,” Larry says. He pauses for several moments before his mouth turns up in a grin of realization. “John?” he says, whispering. “John from the hospital!” The men pump each other’s hands before embracing and laughing together.
“Joan! This is Larry. Remember after your first surgery I told you I met him in the cafeteria.”
Joan’s eyes get misty looking at him. “The man who taught John how to pray.”
Larry shakes his head. “No, I just talked about wood.”
“No,” Joan says. “John changed after he met you. God put you there for him that day.” Larry begins to shake his head. “He did! John didn’t believe anything at that time. Neither did I. But you were there, and you said what John needed. Christmas became new to us because of you! You set John on a journey to discover who God and His Son are.” She steps to him and hugs Larry. “Just like a woman named Ronnie was there in the chemo room one day with her son and she said what I needed. Just like a man named Ed from church showed up at John’s workshop door at the time he needed him. And just like you had this table when Lauren needed one. God doesn’t waste any opportunities. We do.” She turns to look at Lauren. “I’m so glad you didn’t waste this opportunity.” She hugs Lauren, and Lauren beams from ear to ear.
“These,” Lauren says, picking up the rest of the recipes on the table and handing them to Andrea, “belong to you. I hope you don’t mind, but I made a copy of each one of them.”
“I made her,” Travis says. “Hope we didn’t infringe on any copyright laws.” Andrea laughs, shaking her head.
“And the table is yours, too,” Lauren says.
“I can’t take the table,” Andrea says. “You bought it.”
“It’s yours,” Lauren says. “It belongs in your family for as long as possible.”
“I’ll make you a new one,” John says to Lauren.
“We can make you a new one,” Larry pipes in, winking at John. “Do you still work with wood, John?”
“I still dabble.”
“He doesn’t dabble,” Joan says. “He makes beautiful things.”
“Don’t tell me you live in Grandon and we’ve not seen each other all these years?” Larry asks.
“We never lived in Grandon,” John says. “Just over the line in Elmore.”
“And we met at City Hospital twenty miles from each one of us,” Larry says, amazed. “When was that?” He searches his brain for the answer. “Forty years ago!” Larry looks at Joan. “You had part of your lung removed.”
Joan nods. “And then later I had more of it removed. And it was a long recovery, but it seems the entire community rallied around us. Elaine would bring me milk,” she says, looking at Bud.
“I remember that,” Bud says.
“And she never charged me a dime for all that milk and cream she dropped off.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Bud says, making everyone laugh.
“She’s been cancer-free as long as I’ve been in the family,” Bill says.
“She was a wrecking ball against cancer,” Andrea says. “She and Dad both were. They were a team. Mom even has the robe to prove it.” Joan laughs, thinking about that silly robe from Halloween that still hangs in her closet.
“Who’s ready to eat?” Lauren says.
Andrea looks out the kitchen window to the driveway. “What about Gloria and Marshall, Miriam, Dalton and—”
“Oh! They weren’t really invited,” Lauren says, grinning. “I told them before the meeting that day that I had a surprise for you and needed all of them to agree to come here just so you’d come. I even made up Robert and Kate Layton to make it sound like a party. I couldn’t believe it when you called today and said your parents had driven into town and asked if it would be okay to bring them! This turned out better than I ever imagined!”
“I feel like a party crasher,” Larry says sheepishly.
“You have made the party!” Lauren says, opening her arms wide and running to him to give him a hug. “You were definitely meant to be here!”
Lauren passes out punch to those who don’t have any and raises her glass. “To a table that brought us all together!”
“And to beating cancer,” Andrea says.
“And to wood!” Larry adds, looking at John.
“And hospital cafeterias,” Joan says.
“And to dairy farmers,” John says.
“And to handwritten family recipes,” Bud says, laughing.
“And to old friends and family memories,” Bill says.
“And to babies who are about to be born,” Travis says, putting his arm around Lauren.
“And to mysteries that are solved,” Lauren shouts as they clink their glasses together.
TWENTY-NINE
December 2012
Lauren works alongside Miriam as they set silent auction items onto tables near the gazebo for the annual Glory’s Place fund-raiser. Nearby, Travis, Dalton, Gabe, and Amy set up chairs. In just a few hours the children from Glory’s Place will be performing Christmas songs and carols for what they hope will be their most successful fund-raiser ever. “Whose idea was it to start having this fund-raiser outside in December?” Miriam sneers.