Dressed in a grey Maryland Redskins T-shirt, with official dark red text of the team, Grandma Claudia Powley,70, sits upright on a cream, tweed fabric couch awaiting her first Thanksgiving dinner, ever.
Dearie’s first Winter
It’s that time of year when we travel and gather around friends and family to enjoy each other’s company, stuff ourselves with lots of food and be thankful for health and life. But this year, the Bouchers of Castlewood Drive, Upper Marlboro Maryland have something extra special to be thankful for: Grandma Claudia, or as she is homely called—Dearie.
Dearie, 70, with her dark, mellow skin and silver-grey locks came to the United States of America on Tuesday November 20 from Guyana, South America. She is happy to be with her elder daughter, Vanda Boucher and grandchildren Laureni 24, Lyn 19 and Lawrence 21 and her brother Bertram among other relatives celebrating a new holiday, but what happened earlier that day was, for the family, a triumphant surprise of payback.
Longtime family friend Karen (also from Guyana), 41, came down to Maryland to visit from New York City unawares of Dearie’s arrival. That morning, after a nights rest, having driven in late on Thanksgiving eve, Karen got a cheerful shock when she saw Dearie stepping into the kitchen. Roars of laughter and screams filled the air as Karen could not contain her excitement while at the same time showcasing her resentment of being deceived, but nonetheless excited as she yelled with a Guyanese dialect, “why didn’t y’all tell me Dearie was coming—Dearie morning—wait I’m gonna text Penny now (Dearie’s other daughter who still resides in Guyana)—why didn’t she tell me and I spoke to her yesterday.”
After the outburst Vanda responds, “Because you always going to Guyana to surprise Penny so we decide to pay it back to you and surprise you.”
Now Dearie, Vanda, Karen and other relatives are gathered around the table laden not with popular Thanksgiving dishes like candied yams, but with popular Guyanese foods: creamy mac n cheese, stuffed eggs (deviled eggs), Guyanese fried rice, potato salad, fried chicken, sweet golden corn kernels, Jollof rice ( a Nigerian red spiced rice since Laureni’s boyfriend is Nigerian) and a juicy turkey stuffed and overflowing with bunches of grapes.
The Thanksgiving Dinner Spread
After prayer everyone loads up their plates and settle in to watch the NFL Cowboys versus Redskins game. It is this time that Dearie sits on the couch beaming at everyone around her. She says in her Guyanese dialect, “I’m enjoying my first thanksgiving very much. When I see them eat, 2,3,6 s plates of food. They eat plenty food. But, I was expecting it. I heard about thanksgiving, about all the fancy dishes, family coming over and all and I’m enjoying myself, my first thanksgiving. I get to see my brother who I haven’t seen since 2009 and I get to meet my granddaughter’s boyfriend (of 6 years) for the first time. But I don’t like football, I prefer to watch something else. I’m looking forward to more thanksgivings. But I won’t help cook, my grandchildren will cook for me. Now it’s time for me to be taken care of.” Dearie was enjoying her first thanksgiving, but it was a little trying since there was no running water.
Repping the Redskins
The family prepared thanksgiving meal and spent the entire day (and night) with no running water since the main water pipeline in the neighborhood broke and the water was shut off. To compensate households for the inconvenience, boxes of 1 gallon bottled water were distributed by the water company. The bottled water was used in the kitchen to cook and in the bathroom for hygiene proposes. Thirteen people in one house with no running water and bathroom runs was a difficult situation, but it did not damper the day.
Boxes of Water
As night sets in and everyone has eaten their fill they’re all fully focused on the game. Screams and shouts of “Hold on to the ball” and “Be careful R.G.” flow over the air. At commercial breaks random conversations rise, from Laureni asking “water come back yet?” to Bertram saying in a Guyanese dialect “in hockey from the time they leave the net they fighting.”
Dearie looks on with a smile on her face, snuggled next to her daughter Vanda.
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