Recently, I had a very special day that reminded me of how much I benefit from eating out. It happened at Travinia, a restaurant that Kate and I enjoyed on Sundays before her hospitalization with COVID in 2020. Since then, she has been more restricted, but I have continued to have lunch there every Sunday.
Before I was seated at my table, I walked over to a nearby table and spoke with a couple that I see every week. They always ask me about Kate, and I was happy to give a good report that she is still doing well. I asked how they were doing, and that began a brief, but pleasant conversation.
When the server took my order, she said she thought she might have served me before. I told her I wasn’t sure, but I thought I would have remembered her hair that was shorter than my flat top when I was a teenager. She said, “Well, it’s just now growing out.” That made me think that she may have had cancer, but I didn’t ask. After she left, I felt I should have asked and been more supportive.
It wasn’t long before the manager of the restaurant stopped by and asked about Kate as well as my brother who travels a lot and my son-in-law who has been talking about retirement. In between, we talked about how the Labor Day weekend had kept many regular customers away. That caused me to mention the seasonal patterns of my business.
I was eating an arugula salad that is a new addition to the menu. I told him I had never heard of arugula when I was growing up. Then, he told me about its being a west coast vegetable that had gradually made its way across the country.
When the server returned a little later, I told her I wanted to ask her a personal question: “Did you have cancer?” She said she hadn’t. She told me that she had shaved her head and kept it shaved for a while. That led to more questions about why and another interesting conversation.
Midway through my lunch, a man and his wife took a table across the room from me. I knew them from Villa Tronco. We saw them regularly for about eight years when the restaurant brought in opera singers to perform on the first Thursday. I didn’t know them well, but I see them at Travinia once in a while. It wasn’t long before the man walked to my table to say hello. We had another brief conversation.
As I left, I dropped by their table to speak with his wife. I told her that I still remembered calling her by the wrong name for several years. I told her that I now remember her name each time we see each other but can’t remember what I had called her before she corrected me. She laughed and said that she couldn’t remember either.
From there, we began a longer discussion about some of the funny things that have happened to us during our married lives. When we finished, I left the restaurant feeling great.
