Thursday, January 14, 2010

One of the stranger memories

Very shortly after Kevin and I were married, one of the students I knew well in InterVarsity said her grandfather was in town and wanted to meet me. He was a high-stakes gambler. I'm sure there is a more polished word for that, but I don't know it. So when he came to Vegas, he was given a room, as was his granddaughter. Kevin and I dressed up and went to meet them at a fancy restaurant in Caesar's.

The grandfather was short, well-dressed, curt. His chauffer/attendant and two other men accompanied him. We all sat around a large semi-circle booth and he ordered our food. We began with shark fin soup. I was torn between the tense formality of this dinner and the urge to giggle that Kevin had to ingest shark fin soup.

I have no memory of what we talked about. What would a twenty-something newlywed Las Vegas missionary say to a Philippine gambling grandfather? At the end of the meal, he gave us three hundred dollars. It was after he left that his granddaughter handed it to us. We used it to buy dining room chairs, as we had none. I believe he loved his granddaughter, knew of her involvement in this "Christian group" and wanted to check us out.

Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

1 comment:

littlecbsmom said...

That is hysterical! I'm just wondering who would think shark fin would be good in a soup or for that matter...anything.

I'm sure I will go to bed tonight thinking of a strange memory in my own life:)