Her voice carried the tone of someone giving instructions rather than asking for help. When I hung up the phone, my husband Kevin was sitting on the sofa scrolling through something on his phone with the relaxed expression of someone who already knew what the call was about.
“What does your mother want?” I asked.
“Grandpa’s anniversary gathering,” he answered without lifting his eyes from the screen. “You know how she is with those events.”
Of course I knew. Dorothy loved having people in her house and loved even more hearing neighbors compliment her hospitality. She often invited large groups without hesitation because praise from others meant more to her than the effort required to host them.
People in the neighborhood always said the same things when they left her house after one of those gatherings. They would say that Dorothy’s table was always full of food and that she knew exactly how to treat her guests. Hearing those words made her smile with satisfaction.