Celebration

About a year and a half ago, when Trent and I knew that we would be moving to Florida before fall, I decided to give him a surprise for our upcoming anniversary. I made a reservation for dinner at his favorite Disney restaurant. The restaurant is in one of the Disney hotels, so we didn't have to pay extra to buy Park entrance tickets. He was thrilled that I was going to take him to dinner at his favorite place after we made our move. And then COVID 19 (or The Plague, as I tend to call it) blew up and many businesses across the country shut down. The entire hotel in question was closed, so we switched our reservation to a different restaurant. Naturally, since it wasn't the place we had hoped for, it proved to be a bit disappointing.

Time passed, and I kept checking to see if Disney was offering Annual Passes for sale again, and to see whether or not The Restaurant was going to reopen. We also were on the lookout to get COVID vaccinations to protect ourselves when these magic moments came to pass. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's came and went, and then Trent got sick. Without having gotten an Annual Pass or going to the Parks or going to The Restaurant, Trent was gone. 

Shortly before my sister's second trip to visit me in Florida, the company announced that The Restaurant was going to be accepting reservations in a few days. When I explained to Liz that it would be open on my anniversary, which would happen during her visit, she immediately accepted my invitation to go to dinner there with me. I stayed up all night when I knew the reservations would be opened up to make sure that I could book a dinner reservation. Imagine my surprise when I did a search on my computer for the confirmation email and found the confirmation from the year before, and saw that the reservations were within ten minutes of each other! It felt like Trent was giving his seal of approval for us going to this dinner of celebration, not sadness.

It was a lovely evening. The weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed seeing the geckos running around at every turn on the winding tropical path from the parking lot to the hotel. Liz, who freely admits to being a picky eater, bravely tried and enjoyed the African-themed foods. And for any of you have figured out that The Restaurant is more commonly known as Boma, I have two words for you: Zebra Domes. Actually, everything was delicious, and as an adult who has no kids and therefore can eat whatever I want and not worry about being a bad example, I will freely admit that I helped myself to several different treats from the dessert station. And ate every one of them. It sort of reminded me of being on my honeymoon years ago and deciding that since I was an adult, it was perfectly fine to eat dessert first. This time I did it at the end of the meal, but the joy and gusto were the same. 

I know that this isn't a grand and glorious story with events of mythic proportions (although I consider my dessert-eating to be a mission during which I exhibited the utmost in bravery), but I think that's okay. Having a good dinner, visiting the gift shop, and sitting in the hotel lobby to soak up the atmosphere were all great ways to celebrate the years I had with Trent, and to honor him with my happiness. I won't lie and say that I didn't feel any sense of loss or melancholy when the date was approaching, because I did. But I tried to turn it around into what I hope I can make a new tradition, going out to celebrate on our anniversary. Maybe it's an idea that you can borrow, trying to make a happy memorial out of a day that could be sad. I think that Trent would like that.

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