The House Was Not Home
Categories: Léo’s Insights 2024-2025
While we are thankful for having had very few failures regarding our ability to visit our families, there are quite a few stories we can tell about family missteps and memory lapses. Setting aside emergency situations such as children breaking bones, there have actually been so few instances of being “stood up” or surprising families at our entry that we remember the funniest ones.
There have been a few instances where the mom completely forgot we were coming. We were always entertained by the various looks of horror on the mom’s face or a child asking, “What are you doing here?” when answering the doorbell. It was especially impressive to watch the moms who had forgotten they had invited us to a meal magically create excellent fare in short order!
One of my favourite surprise stories taught me a very important lesson. I had had a very good phone visit with the dad who not only confirmed that our visitation plan would work but invited us to join the family for dinner since our timing coincided. However, when we arrived, the mom was really trying to smile through her horrification. We quickly learned why when the husband sheepishly said to his wife, “I forgot to tell you they were coming.” This mom pulled a dinner out of a hat and we all had a good time, but you could feel a bit of tension between the parents. I imagine dad got an earful once we left. From that time forward, when being invited to join the family for a meal by the dad, I have always warned him it will go very badly for him if he fails to tell his wife!
Another time, with a different family, we arrived at the agreed-upon time but nobody was home. We had work to do so we just went into our camper and completed a few tasks while waiting for the family to show up. Once it was obvious the family was not coming, and needing to get to our next appointment, we started to drive away. We then met the mom on the road where her initial smile dissolved into shock as she realized she was waving to people she was supposed to meet an hour earlier.
Of all the stories we can tell about missed appointments, this one wins. When we arrived for supper at the agreed-upon time, not only was the family not home, but the home wasn’t either! Before the days of cell phones, this presented a bit of a challenge, but we did eventually have very delicious and well-cooked chicken in the trailer that had been moved to a new location. Stuff happens.
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