GRANDMA'S WAKE, SECOND SESSION
Rita and Dennis are there, Dennis still hearty but distant, and this time Mom almost misses Mr. Didi from grade school (just after she'd told me about the tracheotomy victim in her building that she went to Firestone Park School and Garfield with), and his girlfriend's gone out earlier, so Mom has a chance to tell him how handsome he is, how interesting it is that he'd never married, etc., introducing me to him, and everyone's talking about him and his girlfriend. Greg and Gary showed up at some point, saying that their Dad would give the decision on their being pallbearers, but their Dad supported them in their refusal, so it ended up David, me, Dennis, Parker, someone from the home, and someone I didn't see. Rita and Dennis and I sit and talk about food, Marion says that she's "instructing" Mom about lifestyle, and I refrain from telling her that IBM does not worry about my being gay, though the IBM thing comes up often, and I have to explain my having quit twice. Dr. Gingrich is there, a couple away from his fat wife, and I talk about Sete Quedas and Rio and North Cape while he bemoans his five kids and the fact that he won't be able to travel until he's retired. Marion keeps talking about how socially-high these two couples are, and I'm sure that Carr's is "better" than anyplace Mom would have picked. Priest comes in for the rosary that Dennis misses, Rita's sure he says NIECE gets it. Mom goes to confession (first to ME, then to the priest!) Mrs. Beck is sitting in a corner weeping away, Mary Goepfert is again laughing at how she looks like Mom, and it's Jack Goepfert who's pallbearer, not Parker: they both have the black-ringed eyes and morose-dog look in common. Fuss about who's being in the lead car and Mom brings up "I'm the oldest" for every perquisite imaginable, but she bridles when Helen says sarcastically, "After all, she's the OLDEST," and Mom cries and asks why she'd do that, and I enter for the ONLY time to say, "Because YOU say it at every opportunity," and she doesn't even RESPOND. Going out in the evening she looks at me in my gray suit and says "You're HANDSOME," which I believe floors me so much I don't even know what to say other than "Thank you." Mom tells everyone we'd been to Hibachi, talking about the black couple, even though she's SAID not to tell Helen, who obviously overhears. Rita and Dennis wonder where they're staying, but Jimmy makes sure I tell them they're invited to their place to eat afterwards.