I just celebrated my 87th birthday. My daughter Julie set it all up to have here at the Willows. My sonDan had a prior commitment and so couldn’t come. My daughter Stacey and her husband Shane came in Saturday and stayed overnight. Sunday morning, I went to 7:00 am Mass. I came home and made breakfast for myself to post on my Instagram account. Shane was out doing his morning run, and Stacey had taken their dog Frank to the dog park. When Shane got home, Stacey made breakfast for him, I spent the time updating my account.
Julie arrived from Milwaukee and she and Stacey began preparing the food for the celebration. They had ribs, chicken breast, potatoes, beans, fruit, and a homemade birthday cake. They had the Broaster running, and the oven full of food. Shane was dozing on the couch, and I was half asleep in the den watching TV. For some reason the girls went outside. Then totally unnoticed, one of the dishes in the oven overflowed. Smoked began billowing out of the oven vent filling the house with smoke. Shane and I were totally oblivious of this.
Suddenly Ronnie and Barb, Julie’s mother and father in laws came in the back door and started yelling “What’s going on?”. The house was so full of smoke you couldn’t see down the hall. I shut off the i=oven and we opened a bunch of windows. There was enough of a breeze that the smoke cleared.
Andy, PD, and Maddy arrived, and we set up for dinner. I posted the food on my Instagram account and filled a plate. The rest followed suit. It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. After dinner I read the birthday cards, and thanked Julie for the bottle of Four Roses single barrel.
They then cleaned the kitchen and put the dishes in the dishwasher. Then everyone left.
I was sitting there relaxing and thinking about what a great birthday dinner it was, when a disturbing thought came to mind. The smoke alarm never went off. I called maintenance and they came and checked it out. They couldn’t determine if it was faulty but told me the crew was coming through the next day to test all the smoke alarms in Wesley Willows.
Life is good.
