C'est La Vie

Part 2

C owns and runs a small local bistro. She knows what she is doing at the stove. She has been in business for seven years. The menu is simple and she uses quality ingredients. She is a welcoming soul. I go for pancakes once a week since sweetness is one of things that I can taste. One day we were talking about travel. She related that a few years ago one of her sons went to Calabria with some other people. They rented a villa. Early in the trip her son’s throat swelled so much that he had to return home. It was 4th stage esophageal cancer. She proceeded to tell me that within a short period of time she lost this son to cancer, a second son to an overdose of fentanyl, her mother and her best friend, her mother-in-law. I was more than a little stunned as I had never met anyone who had suffered this much loss of family in such a short span of time. I did not know how to respond. I at last told her that I did not know how she did it. My heart went out to her but words did not express what I felt. I thought of Joan Didion and her book “The Year of Magical Thinking”. This woman’s loss was more immediate. As I was leaving she said “What can you do? That’s life.”

She was granted a PPP loan of $15k. Business has not been great. She will know by December if she can remain open. I hope she does.