One Last Lunch

An imaginary lunch with my mother, who died when I was four.

A few years ago, I received an email out of the blue from a woman named Erica Heller, whom I’d never met. She told me she was putting together an anthology of imaginary lunches with loved ones who are now dead, and asked me if I would write a lunch with my mother.

If she’d asked me to write a lunch with my Dad, I might not have said yes. But Mum . . . I couldn’t say no. If I had lunch with her, I might finally come to know her.

For six months, I was afraid to sit down and write. I thought it would be emotionally grueling. Erica kept chasing me. Finally, I decided I couldn’t not write it because I was scared! So I gathered every ounce of courage I have and started.

To my amazement, it wasn’t emotionally grueling at all. It was one of the best writing experiences of my life! It took a twist that I could never have expected before I started to write it.

You can hear me read my lunch here. Also, with Erica’s permission, I’ve made a space where people can publish their own last lunches, on the Imaginative Storm Circle site. Maybe one of those people is you. If so, please write and tell me, because I’m hungry to read it.