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03/21/2018 08:00 AM

The Night Before Christmas


Little did we know that it was the night before Christmas.

Actually, it was the night after our last nor’easter. We had lost power in Guilford and after manually opening the garage door, we ran a few necessary errands. On the way home, a decision was made to go to the Killingworth Café for dinner. We had read about it just before the blackout came. Fortunately, it was open, and we settled in at a window table, with a young couple behind us.

Ann had difficulty getting her jacket off, so the lady behind helped her and did it again when it slipped down.

We enjoyed our meal and the couple rose to leave, but chatted with us briefly by asking how long we were married. We are 92 and 93 respectively. We said we were not married, but had met at our mailbox nine years ago. Our previous partners had died and we were happy to have each other.

After they left we signaled for our bill. The waitress came over and said “Congratulations”—the couple that left had paid for our meal. Wow! We were in awe. We said we’d leave a tip, but she said no—they left a generous one.

We have two things to say: Thanks to the unknown couple from Chester—they had mentioned living there—and thanks to an honest waitress who could have easily rendered us our bill.

To paraphrase Jimmy Durante, “Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Chester, wherever you are.”

Ann Bradley

Robert Babcock

Guilford