Nostalgia leads to sad

[fbhjr]

Two of the folks who sit near me at work were having a “discussion” over
which of their families put on a better spread of food for the holidays.
One is from Greece. The other from Syria. Both tell me they have a big
tradition of making sure everyone has plenty of food for the holidays.
Both seem to feel their culture has a better tradition of providing holiday
food.

“What about you?” the guy from Syria asked me.
“I’m out of the running,” I said. “My mother wasn’t a very good cook and
wasn’t very good about sharing it with people.”
“Irish?” he asked me.
“Half Irish,” I agreed.
“Stingy with food!” he said. “But, a great place to get a drink!”
“We had no shortage of alcohol when I was growing up,” I agreed.
“So, where did you go to eat?” he asked me.
“What?”
“Everyone I know from your background had a friend who had a family that
could cook! You must have had some friend whose house you liked to go to
eat.”
“I did,” I said, thinking back. “When I was in grade school I had a friend
Peter. His mother was a great cook. She’d spend weeks getting ready for a
big holiday. It was always fantastic food.
“I heard Peter went on to be a chef himself. I’m not surprised.”
“Not Irish people?”
“No, they were Italian.”
“See! There you go!”

I hadn’t thought about Peter in a long time. We had been friends from 4th
to 6th grade, then we went off to different schools and never saw each
other again. 6th grade was now more than 40 years ago for me…

Thinking about that, I plugged his name into Google.
I found that he died 8 years ago.

That was unexpected.
He had only been 44 at the time.

We were friends for 3 years. I haven’t seen him in more than 40.
But, it still makes me quite sad.

Comments

[glowstar.livejournal.com]

Omgosh, that's awful to read about your friend and his passing. I'm sorry for your loss! Even though you had not seen each other for a long time, it still hits home for you, you know? Ugh. I wish I could reach through the screen and give you a hug! I know how it feels to unexpectedly lose someone you had a good friendship with.

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

I am sorry that you found sad news

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That is really sad. I have a similar thing happen when I finish a book and like it enough to google the author, then learn they're dead. It's depressing, even with as small of a connection to them as I have.

[chaquir.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I'm sorry.

It would've been nice to be able to re-connect.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

So sad. Young, talented, and a friend. That is a loss.

Sometimes it can be very hard to lose people you haven't seen for a long time--the end of possibility.

[merilune.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that Peter passed away. It's quite young and very sad.

I found out on the weekend that one of my friends from high school passed away. He was only 27. He was a lovely person.

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

I am sorry.

[opakele.livejournal.com]

Wow. How sad.

[tedwords.livejournal.com]

Finding these sort of details out about childhood friends can be really disconcerting. It still can hurt, even 40 years later :(

[twicet.livejournal.com]

I am sorry:(

[marysue007.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry.
It is weird that even though you lost touch and it was so long ago, it can still hit pretty hard. The age thing is always such a shock too. HUGS

My mum was raised by her old school German mother and our holiday dinners were always big and full of different choices of food.

I wanted to give you a link I found that I though you might be interested in but thought maybe now was a bad time, but hey, it might be a great time to help cheer you up a bit.
I was searching interesting youtube channels and this one was a suggestion, https://www.youtube.com/user/scholagladiatoria/
It is pretty cool.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I didn't know they had a Youtube channel. Very interesting.
I've heard of them before and think I've even met a few in my travels.
Thanks for the link!

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

Yes, Googling old friends can be a mixed bag. I've done it a few times, sometimes it turns out well, sometimes I'm sorry I looked. =(

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry for the loss and the shock. *hugs*

I have found that food is the universal expression of love/affection/friendship in every culture. No one really gets to claim it.