Wiregrass Seniors Magazine November Issue NOVEMBER ISSUE | Page 20

Page 20
WiregrassSeniorsMagazine.com
I looked at my fellow nurse and said, "Who
eats ham for Thanksgiving?" She shook her head,
"not me. We gotta find those plates. I'm starved."
My first Thanksgiving away from my family We looked for quite a while, but finally we did give up
was spent working a 16 hour shift at the nursing looking. Our stomachs were growling as we returned
home. For days before Thanksgiving, I ranted and to work. Soon my husband called, "Honey, how was
raved about how my family better save me some your dinner?" I didn't have the heart to tell him that it
good food, especially pumpkin pie. This nurse loves had been stolen, so with my stomach protesting
some good food. I look forward to the holiday sea- loudly, I lied, "Wonderful-The pumpkin pie was great,
the turkey was moist, the dressing wonderful. I am
son all year long.
really looking forward to eating some more when I
The day came, and I went to work a little less get home." There was a long pause on the other end
than enthusiastically. I didn't want to be there, but I of the phone, and then my husband replied, "Mom
realized that my patients needed me regardless. The burnt the pumpkin pie, and we had ham this year."
cafeteria personnel had informed us that they would
be serving us thanksgiving dinner when they served
the residents their lunch. My husband offered to bring
me a plate, but I explained to him that I didn't want
him to have to leave his family to bring it. He didn't
listen, and he brought a plate for me and the other
nurse working that day. We were very happy to have
the home cooked meals and politely refused the
cafeteria lunch.
We snuck our covered dishes to the break
room and put it on top of the fridge where no one
could find it, not taking the time to even peek inside,
and quickly returned to our med passes. Around an
hour later all of the residents were fed, medicated,
and laid down if they wanted to be. We made our
way to the break room to enjoy our Thanksgiving
dinner. My stomach was growling and felt like it was Sudoku is easy and the rules are simple. Fill in the
actually starting to digest itself. I was starving. I blanks so that each row, each column, and each of
reached up on the top of the fridge to grab my long the nine 3x3 grids contain one instance of each of
the numbers 1 through 9.
solution on page 30
awaited holiday meal.
My mouth watering at the thought of the won-
drous Thanksgiving feast that awaited me. I could
almost taste the turkey and dressing. I couldn't feel
a thing up there. I pulled up a chair and peeked over
the edge, nothing. It was gone. We looked in the
fridge, in the microwave, in the trash, even asked
other staff members. No one had seen it. We began
to search patient rooms to see if one of them were
enjoying it. It was no where to be found. We did find
two residents, a husband and wife eating ham, sweet
potatoes, deviled eggs, and pecan pie. They asked
what we were doing. We explained that our Thanks-
giving dinner had come up missing, and we were
looking for it. The husband replied, "We had this
delivered, but our cafeteria trays are over there if
you want them." Again, we politely declined and
continued our search without luck.
The Missing Turkey Dinner
Sudoku