So, Gloria is dead, and I my life is over (although I'm still breathing), and I'm in a new town, and the second new town within a year, so I'm trying to not exactly rebuild my life, but build a new life. So, as I often do, I turn to volunteer work. But I'm brand new in town, and I haven't yet made any contacts, and I don't even know what kind of volunteer work there is available around here.
One of the first churches that I visit (and, yes, church shopping is also one of the ways of trying to build a new life), on my very first visit to this particular church, is noting that one of the church ladies, a pillar of the church, one of the kitchen and coffee ladies, has died. Her service is to be the following week.
I know about kitchens. I know about cooking, but I also know about kitchens. I know about church kitchens. I don't know about this particular church kitchen, but I know about church kitchens. I also know the necessities for receptions following services. So, I contact one of the church kitchen ladies, and I know that I expect that, given the status of the woman who has died, that all the church kitchen ladies will want to attend the service. So I volunteered to be the one staying downstairs, and also prepared to do the last minute necessities just before the service ends, and everyone troops downstairs for the reception.
So, on the appointed day and time I come along and help, as I can, setting up for the reception. And, as noted, I volunteered to be the one who has to stay behind and keep an eye on things, while all the rest of the church kitchen ladies get to go up and attend the service for their fallen member.
And, just after everyone has left, somebody that I know from the church comes into the downstairs area, and asks if they can have a cup of coffee before they go up to the service. This particular church has a two hundred cup coffee urn, which has, in fact, been filled and set perking by the coffee ladies, well in advance of the need for it following the service. I know, from long experience, going back all with way to my university days when I bought the coffee and supplies for Regent College, that this particular type of coffee urn generally takes a little over an hour to perk its way through and produce coffee. But, as I say, the coffee ladies have already done their work, and the thing has gone through its entire cycle and the red light has gone off, which indicates, on this particular urn, that the coffee is ready. So, I tell him so, and say that it's okay for him to get a cup of coffee. He takes a cup, and draws out a nice steaming cup of hot water. It's completely clear, although it smells very vaguely of coffee, and it is quite obvious that although the urn has been filled with water, and has gone through its perk cycle, no coffee was actually ever put in with it.
So I race up the stairs, and find one of the church coffee ladies, and inform her of this fact, and also the fact that I have no idea where the coffee is kept in their particular kitchen, nor how much coffee they decide to put in their coffee. She comes down, and we refill the urn with water, and she puts the coffee in this time, and we set it going, and she heads back upstairs to the service.
As I said, the service was for one of the ladies who was a pillar of the church, and everybody wanted to contribute and so the service was a little bit longer than most similar services. It was in fact a little over an hour before the service was over, and by the time everybody did troop downstairs, we did have the urn of coffee ready to go.
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/10/mgg-introduction.html
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