The Afternoon Tea Club: 2015

Old Italian Guys and Surprises

Written by @stellamorgenstern

So, by this point in time some of you may be wondering who this mysterious Stella is. She has a place in the profiles of others and even stories dedicated to her, but has not yet written her own?

Well, here I am.

See the reason why I (up until this point) had not written a story for this is I had nothing tell. I’m in the year below all the others and therefore am often away at the time of their shenanigans. Even during the holidays the odds weren’t in my favour.

You see, while everyone was at Jade’s place “camping” and making ice-cream cakes where was I? In the Hunter Valley. For what was supposed to be a four-day break.

After our 3 and a half hour drive up we finally arrived at our hotel/resort thing. After scouting out the place I immediately nestled into the pile of cushions on my bed and began to read.

Once an indefinite amount of time had passed my parents declared they were hungry and dragged me from my reading nook. You can decide for yourselves whether to take that literally or not.

My parents decided on some fancy Italian restaurant I can’t pronounce the name of and we sat down. The place was full of people as loud as 11 year-old girls at a 1D concert. Being the socially awkward person I am, I got a little anxious.

At this precise moment, as if sensing my distress, in walks a large, white, mountain dog. Instantly I bolted out of my chair and went over to the dog who I soon learnt belonged to the owner of the restaurant.

Grudgingly, after the dog was sent outside, I returned to my dinner.

After we had finished our meals we continued to sit and talk. The crowd in the restaurant slowly dissipated to the point where it was just us and one other couple.

The owner of the restaurant came over to our table and after teaching us how to correctly use the word bellissimo began to talk about his life. He had grown up on an island of the coast of Italy, Sardinia. Ever since he was a child he had loved to cook, although when he grew up he first became a joiner (a specialist type of carpenter).

We asked him if he missed Italy to which he replied “Not really, this, here, is my home”. He then continued to talk about how we have a limited amount of time on the planet and how we should spend it doing what we love. He said that if there is something you want to do then you should do it and that no matter where you end up living, you make sure that it feels like home.

We thanked him for the lovely meal and returned to our hotel with me feeling quite enlightened.

The next day was not what I had expected.

After a fairly uneventful day of strolling around in some shops as we headed back to the hotel we got a call from my aunt.

She had called to tell us my grandmother had had a seizure and was unconscious. This wasn’t that much of a surprise as my grandmother had a cancerous brain tumor.

What shocked me was what happened next.

5 minutes after we had finished talking to my aunt, my uncle called.

My grandmother had died.

As soon as we got to the hotel we all packed up our things and got in the car to go home. 2 days earlier than planned.

In the car I couldn’t help but think about what the owner of the restaurant had told us and wonder whether my grandmother had any regrets. She’d always seemed happy enough but I didn’t really know if she was.

That day I decided that I wouldn’t waste my time on this Earth. Although there are limited opportunities for a ‘carpe diem’ attitude when you’re still only in high school I promised I’d do my best.

1.     Get a job and save money so when I finish school I can travel and buy an apartment in either NYC or London

2.     Study hard to get into a university in one of those places

3.     Be myself and spend time with the people I care about as you never know when you’re last moment with them could be

*This was written in the middle of the night on the day my grandmother passed so if this isn’t entirely coherent I apologise*