Thanksgiving With Rose Mary at Lake Chalet in Oakland

Rose Mary Swart and Elizabeth Weintraub at Lake Chalet in Oakland.

Some of the bestest news I have heard in a long time was when my good friend who had moved away to Boston, Rose Mary Swart, announced that she and her husband had moved back to Northern California. Granted, she is not back working at Lyon Real Estate as a Sacramento Realtor, where I met her many years ago and we fast became friends, and she is not even living in Sacramento anymore, but she and her husband have taken up residence in the Bay area, within an hour or so from Sacramento.

When she suggested we resurrect what used to be our annual Thanksgiving get-together, I was overjoyed. I had spent a lot of time trying to talk my sister and niece into coming to California, but that was like pulling teeth because they could not find a way to get away from Minneapolis. My niece has a job and can’t take off much time, even if her job is just detailing cars. She has 2 more years of college to go before she can become truly disillusioned with the world, but she likes to get a hard start on things.

My brother can’t come to Sacramento due to his chemo treatments and reaction to said chemo treatments. The sarcoma leaves him with little energy. Plus, he and my sister both think visiting us is a good idea but getting them to act on it is pretty much impossible. My husband could not get his family to come out to Sacramento either, which leaves us orphans and on our own for Thanksgiving. It is a real treat for us to have our friends, Rose Mary and Dan back in the area, even if it is an hour away.

We met up at Lake Chalet in Oakland for Thanksgiving dinner. This is a lovely restaurant situated on Lake Merrit near the city center of Oakland. Getting caught up with old friends, sharing a bit of what has happened over the years and just reminiscing while stuffing our faces with turkey and braised lamb was fabulous. I have no idea where we found room for dessert, but we did. We began our celebration by toasting with a glass of champagne.

The bad news is Rose Mary’s dog has a brain tumor and it’s cancerous. The good news is her dog is 14. The valet guys at Lake Chalet were nice enough to park their Lexus at the entrance. You don’t get to be as old as us without going through pain and sadness as your pet struggles with an illness. We’ve all been there. I got to hold her dog’s head in my lap and stroke her fur as they gave us a lift to our hotel. All I could feel was the love, though, the love Rose Mary and her husband have for their dog. It’s good to have our friends back.