My day has been spent so far helping my wife entertain sixteen older ladies for a Valentine's Day Brunch. It wasn't that bad. After they were all seated in the sunroom and when I finished making waffles I escaped to the computer room and listened to music. We have been working on this project since Monday. Most of the guests were from our church and for a couple of them this is about the only event they attend all year because they can enter our house thru the garage and make it to the sunroom without going up steps. Ages ranged from early fifties to early nineties. I think two had walkers. Wife is exhausted and only the first of three dishwasher loads is finished.
The most eye opening thing that happened was after all but one of the ladies had left he house. The remaining lady and my wife were planning three wedding showers that will take place in the next three months. Those two work extremely well together because neither gets offended when the other tells her she is full of s--t. The planning session required two hours, two Ipads, and two notebooks while everything was covered. I'm talking about everything from how many people were expected, who had volunteered to help, who had volunteered to pay because they can't help, to the color of the candles on the tables. Everything has to match, everything has to be timed, everything has to be assigned to someone that has volunteered. And two type A personalities planning it all.
I doubt that D-Day took much more planning.
Being one of the retired men who is able to physically do things I catch the grunt duty. As usual my job will be putting up tables and chairs. Fetching things from upstairs at the church's BOB (Building Out Back). And generally staying out of the way and doing what I'm told to do by the two or three ladies in charge.
I also carry the heavy stuff.
When there is a death in our small community, and it doesn't have to be a member of the church, we also help with the "dinner for the family after the funeral". That also has a military precision to it. It takes all day to set it up and take it down. There are people coming and leaving at various times to help with setup, serving, and cleanup. Actions start happening unbelievably fast when the phone calls come in that "the group is leaving the funeral home", then "they are leaving the cemetery"! After you help a few times you know what each job requires and it always flows smoothly with the last of the food put out just in time for the first guests. I guess thirty years of practicing helps. We have fed from thirty to nearly two hundred at various times.
I am sometimes amazed that a group of sixty to eighty year old women, and most times one man (me), carry out the operation so smoothly.
RSKY