A Rest-In-Peace Rave

One of my aunts passed away after Christmas, leading to many members of the extended family gathering for the funeral at the start of the year. She was not a bad person by any means, but she had strong opinions and felt necessary to speak her mind on nearly everything.

After the services, many of us gathered at a nearby chain Italian restaurant for lunch. Overall, there were eighteen of us present, and we caught the tail end of the lunch rush and had to wait for the crew to combine and set up multiple tables. Once seated, we had two waitresses present to take our orders, deliver food, and provide the usual service. They did the best they could with the group and made no major mistakes, so no one had reason to raise any kind of fuss.

While we were eating our entrees and engaging in various topics of small talk, a third waitress suddenly walked up to us.

Waitress #3: “I know you guys aren’t my table, but you have got to be the quietest, most well-behaved large group I’ve ever seen here.”

We were all in somber spirits due to having just come from the funeral, but it did give us a laugh as she was genuinely grateful. What we didn’t tell her, however, is that the crew might have actually dodged a bullet that day as, ironically, the aunt who had passed away was the one who most likely would have raised a fuss at any little thing that could have gone wrong.