Disclaimer

Anne lives down the street from us. Lauren and Anne get together a few times a week so Max can play with Anne’s kids. Last week Lauren had the pleasure of meeting Anne’s new, next-door neighbors an elderly couple that moved in a few weeks ago. Lauren chatted with them for while and they invited us over for this week to socialize.

Anne got a babysitter and we dropped Max at Anne’s and Anne, her husband, Lauren and I went next door. We walked in the front door and were greeted by William (very cool name) who greeted us all with a big smile and handshakes. I was last one through the front door and I introduced myself and joked about the two of us having the same name, as Lauren and the others headed through the house to the back porch.

Being a super observant person I noticed the William had a big white gauze patch that covered half of his forehead. Also being one who has to state the obvious I said, “What happened to you? Did you take a spill or did your wife crack you with a frying pan?”

William laughed and explained that he recently had some surgery to remove some cancerous tissue from his scalp and that he was undergoing treatment to make sure the wound healed properly. He started to tell me about himself, that he was retired pastor and that they moved to Florida to be closer to their grandchildren when his wife called us back to the porch, where we would sit and talk.

The group was chitchatting and making small talk when William asked me a question. Knowing full well that I just made the remark about the frying pan, to a man of the cloth, I said, “Let me start by saying this; I want to apologize to my wife beforehand, for anything I might say tonight that may embarrass her.”

To which Lauren replied, “And I want to apologize to everyone else for anything he might say to embarrass me.”