Ladies Who Brunch

by Katina Andoniadis

Margret loves going to work at the Country Pie & Pastries Shoppe on Wednesday mornings. That’s when “The Ladies” come for their weekly tea and gossip brunch. It’s just Margret who

calls them The Ladies. This longtime group of friends who grew up in Pottersdam has been meeting for Wednesday brunch longer than Margret has been alive.

Wednesdays are their favorite mornings, too. They gussy up in floral dresses or blouses with lace. They do their hair and faces, and their shoes match their purses. Once upon a time they were in Girl Scouts and 4H together, earning merit badges and winning ribbons. Today they’re comfortably retired after decades of work, childrearing, marriages, divorces, and deaths.

Margret loves the loud stories and tall tales that fill the small dining area each time they meet. The Ladies share long, lurid tales of current or former residents, who slept with whom, local leaders who erupted in scandalous flames. It’s a regular soap opera of truly exaggerated true stories. The details are embellished with each telling as the tale whips ’round and ’round the table, frenetically bouncing from Lady to Lady, their voices rising with each new detail.

At some point even the Ladies will overdo their own story, and someone will shout above the roiling fray: “Now that I know isn’t true.” The voices lower to a simmer as they correct the details and get down to the nitty-gritty of the situation. Murmurs and hums of, “Yes, yes, that’s right . . . .” waft from their table as they remember together.

Margret loves the women and their dedication to one another. She sees them all as her Grandmothers, teaching her through their storytelling and exuberance for life and living.