A cup of tea

A cup of tea holds a long list of memories for me.

When I was in high school I used to work at a pool, as a lifeguard, in 60+ community of people. Needless to say there were NO saves because most of the people did not leave their air conditioned condos when the weather was hot much less take a dip in the pool. So I had a lot of time to work on my tan and that pool was ALWAYS sparkly clean. One particular day, it was kind of chilly and cloudy but the pool stayed open, just on the off chance that someone might have a grandchild visiting that wanted to swim. So as I lay in my lounge chair covered in my towel a sweet older gentleman, who I knew was recently diagnosed with some sort of cancer, came over to the pool and asked how I was doing. I quickly answered, "Fine, thanks." We chatted for another minute of two and he was on his way.

Another hour or so went by and he returned to the desolate pool with a little cup of hot tea. Nothing fancy just the tea bag floating in some warm water. However, for this none tea drinking girl it was GREAT! Warmed me up! Here was the man dying of cancer and for a couple of hours out of his life he was concerned about me and how I was doing. WHOA, that was an amazing thing to me! I later wrote my college admission essay about that day.

Now my family if full of tea drinkers. My Grandmother, affectionately known to us as MONGIE, was a huge tea drinker. Every single time we went to her house she either had a cup of tea in hand, or on the table of the kettle was about to start singing. I loved that about her as do my other siblings and cousins. Tea and Mongie go hand in hand. She drank tea with milk in it. Which we all in turn came to love. My mother drinks tea too. She loves tea in the afternoon or just to warm her up on a chilly day. I remember the kettle singing in our home growing up signalling that someone was about to be warmed to the soul by a cup of deliciousness.

My sisters and brother all LOVE a good cup of tea. Maureen will drink it anytime of the day, she'll start the kettle immediately after a meal to have a cup. She will make sure her tea is perfectly steeped before cutting into her favorite pie or cake for dessert. Maureen and I talk every morning on our way to work and most mornings I am on the phone with her as she pulls into the dunkin donuts drive thru to order her "medium hot tea with milk only". It's so funny cause now I order with her when she tells me to hold on. Kerry and Jenny, a lot like Mongie, seem to always have a cup in hand when I'm at their houses. Kerry recently informed me that once the original cup loses it's heat she is DONE with it. Won't microwave it or anything. She just dumps it out. In fact, I think all of their kids even drink tea. Kerry's son Mike, 12, is the only one of the great-grandkids that had the opportunity to kind of know Mongie. They would have "Mongie Mondays" when he was a little guy. Mongie would come over to Kerry's house for a few hours in the morning and they of course would have tea. I'm not certain but I'm sure he too shared the pleasure we did of enjoying a cup o' tea with Mongie.

In my later life, when I met Sean and would go to his parents home to visit with him, his Mom always would ask me if I wanted a cup of tea when she was brewing some. We would sit at the counter and chat and sip tea and get to know each other better.

All these memories, just over a simple drink like a cup of tea. To that I do feel blessed in my life. I, now, after many years am becoming quite a tea drinker. I love me some chai latte from starbucks but I also have learned to love a nice hot cup of tea right out of the singing kettle on my own stove. Delicious!