Okay, here is the follow up to the earlier post. It is semi-topical as a
Dead Spread takes stage 1/3 of the way into the dialog:
Donna's funeral was Friday at 11:00 a.m. with a viewing Thursday evening
from 5 - 9 p.m. The funeral director said the average number of people who
attend viewings average around 100. They stopped counting at 750 for her.
Velvet ropes made a coiled line around the inside of the gym/fellowship hall
of the church and the line ended in the parking lot.
Funeral was gorgeous. Being a consumate musician, Donna had planned her own
funeral. There was a mixture of black gospel, praise songs (modern
sing-a-longs), old fashioned hymns and classical music. The whole service
was so upbeat, with laughter and tears flowing from the podium. One of the
pastors officiating (there were four) commented that only Donna could have
gotten a bunch of staid, uptight, Pennsylvania Dutchmen to clap and sway in
church.
Afterwards was the feast. Barb, you would have been mighty proud of the
Dead Spread the church ladies put out (I was only a minor part in this, as
you have to work your way up to official church lady). The co-ordinator put
out an all points bulletin when we knew when the funeral was scheduled and
she had people completely fill up the list of needs before the end of the
day. She said when she saw how many people showed up for the viewing, she
said she prayed for a loaves and fishes type miracle that we have enough
food for the next day. God came through, ya gotta admit. She asked for six
people to bring potato salad, each using five pounds of potatoes. What
happened was those who signed up felt that only five pounds wouldn't be
enough, and one used ten and another twenty. Then a few ladies who didn't
even sign up to bring something, came with potato salad.......we guestimate
we had around 100 pounds of it.....A couple of people bought deli trays and
veggie trays from the local grocers (the request usually is just for
luncheon meats and cheeses, as the church ladies roll the meat and make up
theirown trays - why pay extra for what you can do yourself). The tables
were two rows of four banquet tables each lined end to end, each covered
with deli, salads, condiments, veggies,etc. As soon as one item emptied,
another appeared in it's place. We removed partially filled trays to
replace them with a monstrous number of desserts, which were tucked into
readily. (I contributed a pineapple upside down cake to this feast).
When all the friends and family were well fed and heading for their cars, we
had enough left over to make complete veggie and deli trays for the family
to take home 'for later' as well as a couple of containers of potato salad
and a large tray of desserts. After looking over still what was left, there
was enough meat, veggies, salads, desserts to send over to the rescue
mission for the evening meal. One of Donna's passions, besides music, was
serving others, cooking and feeding them, and she was instrumental in
getting the link established between the church and the rescue mission...it
was so appropriate that in the end, Donna was still giving to the people
housed in the mission.
It was truly a loaves and fishes spread, as the people kept coming and
coming back for seconds and the food never seemed to diminish. As one tray
emptied on the table one miraculously appeared from the fridge to take it's
place.
I left around 4:30 p.m. and there were still a few final ladies in the
kitchen putting away the final bits and bobs, I had been there since 10 a.m.
Over all, it was a wonderful experience, feeding those people, and I would
do it again in heartbeat, only I wouldn't want to see another dear soul pass
on just for the experience. Being in the kitchen and milling in and out of
the attendees wiping up crumbs and replacing goodies, you hear all the joy
and laughter and smile with the knowledge you had the privilege to know and
love this person too. We even got a little sense of wicked
pleasure......after church, the co-ordinator was the senior pastor's
wife -Yvonne, she was standing at the doors beside her husband this morning.
You go through the line and shake hands, look her straight in the face and
say 'potato salad'......you could actually see the shiver run up her
spine.....
So...what is your favorite potato salad recipe?
-ginny