My mom accidentally joined a grieving support group (long story, she's not grieving tho) and she's missing it this week while visiting me and she's VERY concerned that Lorraine, who very kindly offered to bring a baked good like mom usually would, will NOT bring the correct kind of dessert, she says citrus tarts aren't "griefy" enough
ok so the way my mom accidentally joined a grieving support group when she's not grieving is this:
She's Catholic and has two churches. One is her Real Church but it's far from her house and tbh all the nice priests have died and the new priests are either lackluster or extremely conservative so sometimes she goes to the Other Church which is closer and more liberal but which she won't join permanently because she doesn't want to "cede the territory" of her Real Church to the conservatives (this is all backstory for flavor don't worry about it). Other Church once announced they were looking for volunteers for, like, a grief squad? Basically if someone was having a funeral but no one showed up to attend, the church would call in the squad and they'd mourn for the dead person and pray (which is important for Catholics because we believe you need that oomph to actually get to Heaven, don't worry about it). Anyway mom thought that was a nice concept so the next time she went back to Real Church she asked the head usher if they wanted to put together a similar squad there. The usher was like, oh we have one of those! It's every Wednesday night, you should join.
The miscommunication: the usher didn't understand the purpose of the squad mom was describing, just heard "grieving and mourning" and went to the next closest thing. Because my mom showed up to the Wednesday meeting and discovered a group of widows and widowers who are there to, like, discuss their own losses?
Why didn't my mom just leave when she realized the mistake? Great question. She had baked a cake (chocolate) thinking that would be appreciated (apparently funerals without real mourners are very short and boring) and she didn't want it to go to waste.
She stayed in the support group!! And has been attending! For a full YEAR.
She explained to the group leader that she isn't a widow and doesn't have anyone to grieve but all they said was "well everyone's lost somebody. Or will." So now my mom goes to the weekly meeting with her baked goods because she 1) doesn't want to be rude and leave the group and 2) apparently grieving people are the Most happy to get cookies so she gets to practice all these bonkers recipes shes wanted to try.
In mom's opinion the best kinds of dessert for grief is chocolate and caramel, or any kind of crunchy candy confection. Lemon and cream is "not mournful enough." She's absolutely wild I love her
