Guess who’s coming to dinner

Last night, my mom took advantage of her hands free mobile device to give me a quick call.

“I’m on my way to your house,” she yelled with careful enunciation. “And I’m bringing a partner for Jeopardy.”

“Hello?” I said. “Mom? Is someone in the car with you?”

“We won,” she shouted.

“Wait. Are you with someone?” I asked.

“It was a great match,” she said, and hung up.

A few minutes later, my side door burst open and my mom rushed in.

“I think I lost Jigger on the roundabout,” she said. “And we need to set the table.”

“Jigger”, AKA the Honorable John Jorgensen, has been a family friend for 30 years. One of my sister Kathy’s best friends in high school, Jigger spent my wedding day running errands for the Kostelnik family and driving Vince and me from the church to the reception.

He and my sisters Kathy and Jenny have been playing a rousing game of daily trivia for several years. More importantly, he has been a member of my mom’s Wednesday night tennis crew for more than three decades. Apparently, they played last night too.

“I invited Jigger to come here for dinner because I wanted you to send the picture he took to Frank,” my mom said.

“Got it,” I said. Frank Mousley, another member of the Wednesday night tennis crew, had moved to Utah. It made perfect sense that my mom would invite Jigger to my house for dinner so I could send a picture of them playing tennis to Frank in Utah.

Am I right?

The honorable Jigger arrived.

“Come on in,” my mom said. “Laura, get John a beer.”

We settled ourselves on TV trays in my family room, distracted each other from Jeopardy (though I did note that Austin Rogers lost), ate bowls of soup from a pot I luckily had simmering on the stove, fielded phone calls from both of my sisters, and laughed.

We laughed a lot.

We forgot to toast last night, so I’m raising my tea mug now. Here’s to old friends, quirky moms, competitive sisters, TV trays, soup pots, and the belly laughs they all inspire.

Cheers!