Memories of breaking bread with family and friends at a dining room table passed on in the family ... Eucharistic Love shared ....
Pic: Montage - Family Dining Room Table, Msgr. Robert Berggreen, Mr. and Mrs. A.N. Horcasitas, Jr.
I was just sitting on one of our antique chairs that belonged to my late parents and my deceased grandparents and which now graces our dining room.
Whether I'm blessed at this dining room table to be eating another fabulous meal from my wife, “Cookie,” whose delicacies I love to post on Facebook per the title of “Cafe Santa Maria,” or to doing mundane tasks like completing my bank statement with my calculator resting on the lovely white laced table cloth that tops it, this table has provided so many wonderful memories for our Horcasitas Family.
When I was a kid living on 1929 Broadway at the corner of Spruce in Uptown New Orleans, this provided the platform to where my parents and grandparents entertained so many wonderful folks, especially with an Hispanic background.
My dad had moved to the Big Easy when he was five back in the early 1920's from Mexico City, as my grandpa had needed to get move from higher elevation for his heart concerns … interesting that he moved to “below sea level” with this transition!
So this dining room table would be able to tell me many neat stories in both English and Spanish!
Being the “caboose” of the family … that is, the last of three, Helen, my older sister and David, my older brother, I could understand some Spanish dialect, but unfortunately, I was never fluent in that lovely language – so, I would share some “Span-glish” tales.
I remember as a kid sitting at this dining room table and marveling at the many different Creole and Spanish meals that would be served, but since I was a picky eater, I mostly recall the Red Beans & Rice dishes that I would eat on more than Mondays!
And how can I forget the times I would get in trouble for spilling my milk at the table?
How did I get to own such a wonderful treasure?
After 1985, following my graduate Social Work Studies in San Diego, when we had moved to Uptown New Orleans - three doors from where I grew up with my family, my Mom gave the table to us.
Maria and I have had many great meals shared with family and friends at this dining room table.
At a previous residence that we lived at in Baton Rouge in the late 80's, the table was a center piece for some neat gatherings like a surprise 40th Birthday Party for Maria and a neighborhood progressive dinner.
When my late parents got displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they stayed with us at our current residence and broke bread many times with us at this table, and once with our special friend and priest, Msgr. Robert Berggreen (pic attached in the montage).
Also, nothing can bring me more consolation than knowing that we once had had a Mass by Msgr. at our house, before Hurricane Katrina, accompanied by some of the Nuns from the Missionaries of Charity per Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Msgr. used this table for the Altar.
Like the Last Supper, thank God for eternal Eucharistic Love that has been shared with loved ones at this table!
Keith John Paul Horcasitas, 1133 Knollhaven Drive, BRLA 70810, khorcasitas(at)yahoo.com, September 17, 2020. Click here to post or read comments.
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