Reflecting on our Café Conversations

On Monday, I had an annual doctor's appointment.  No big deal, but it takes up time in the middle of the day.  On Tuesday, however, I had invited about 20 people to come to the second meeting of Café Conversations.  A few told me ahead of time that:

• they had other plans or doctor appointments.
• she would be out of town.
• she would put it on her calendar.
• she would be delivering meals at that time.
• she would see me Tuesday, followed later by "oops, can't come."
• she "was assisting a friend in Hospice."
• another said, "Maybe." 
• one said simply, "Thank you" with a smiley face.

Most, however, never replied one way or the other.  So I had no idea how many people would be there or how many tables of people we might fill.  At our mid-August gathering, we had squeezed seven of us around one big table.

Well, here's my report about this month.  See that photo at the top?  We had only five of us on Tuesday, so we moved to one side to let Andrew take this photo of us, sitting over in our corner of the Café:  Myrna, Betty, Bev, Bonnie, and Sue.  We talked a couple of hours.  Risé had desk duty and had to miss it this time.  We are still trying to find the best day and time to have our Café Conversations.

Thoughts about a book and a debate

All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way ~ by Fred C. Trump III, 2024, memoir/biography, 352 pages

With revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this honest memoir and sheds a whole new light on the family name.

For the record, Fred Trump never asked for any of this.  The divisive politics.  The endless headlines.  A hijacked last name.  The heat-seeking uncle, rising from real estate scion to gossip column fixture to The Apprentice host to President of the United States.  Fred just wanted a happy life and a satisfying career.  But a fight for his son’s health and safety forced him onto a center stage that he had never wanted.  And now, at a crucial point for our nation, he is stepping forward again.

In this book, Fred delves into his journey to become a "different kind of Trump," detailing his passionate battle to protect his wife and children from forces inside and outside the family.  From the Trump house to the White House, Fred comes to terms with his own complex legacy and faces some demons head-on.  It’s a story of power, love, money, cruelty, and the unshakable bonds of family, played out underneath a glaring media spotlight.  All in the Family is the inside story, as it’s never been told before.

I loved the look on Kamala's face during the debate on Tuesday, especially after one of Trump's claims.  Fact check:  "There is no state in this country where it’s legal to kill a baby after it’s born."  Wow, that statement floored me!

The next day, a friend met me for lunch in the Café and let me borrow Fred Trump's book (above) that she had gotten from the library and had already finished reading.  I have two weeks to read it before the due date.  She says that it's a quick read.

Library loot and a party

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row ~ by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin, 2018, memoir, 299 pages

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama.  Stunned, confused, and only twenty–nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution.  He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence ― full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death.  But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row.  For the next twenty–seven years he was a beacon ― transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty–four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell.  With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With a foreword by Stevenson, this book is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times.  Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty–year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.

Get-together on my floor

Residents on my floor did party together on Thursday afternoon, as we got to know our new neighbors.  I mentioned the upcoming event HERE on my blog.  This photo shows me, Vern, Phil, and Myrna the next day on the television screen at the elevator on our floor.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.