Never Say Never
It seemed an eclectic even motley crew, a collection of admittedly older folk, who are 'mature', 'seasoned' 'experienced' 'ripe' even- out together on a saturday night in a church basement having coctail hour of sushi and shrimp followed by a japanese themed dinner, with mashed potato imbued with crushed ginger, salmon with a terriyaki glaze and a salad with light noodles.
Eve Marie, the organizer as a diplomat with the State Department when married to another Diplomat was stationed in Paris and took a few Cordon Bleu courses. Imagine if Julia Childs was an urban missionary, you get Eve Marie. Now, she says, she is looking to build women's shelters and send homeless people on retreat to the Jesuit Loyola Retreat House. You can tell she is Jesuit inspired. She is the lay leader of a ministry called "The Dechantal Group"- named after the famous saint Jane de Chantal at Holy Trinity Catholic church in Georgetown which hosts the group. They put on monthly dinners themed after countries and usually invite speakers in to discuss their country-in past they have had guests from embassies. She touted Japan's 'resilience' and thanks them for the great cuisine holding a cook book of Japanese cooking. One of the cooking volunteers made the spectacular centerpieces after a japanese arrangement style.
The crowd got jovial and started singing mid-meal. Could have been the Sake.
Bob sat at the front door on the way in collecting money and passing out name tags. It's best to reserve in advance so they can calculate how much food they need. He is a retired metro executive who loves promoting these dinners as the "communications director" of the group. Sitting next to him was Larry, a retired executive at a major defense contractor in the area. He
regailed a few political stories. Madeleine is a French woman who was widowed about fifteen years ago and living in Northern Virginia. She found the food exceptional which was high praise coming from a Frenchwoman. But it was topped by the Marriott Executive who recently joined the Holy Trinity Parish living in Bethesda with discriminating taste. An elegant woman in a black suit made a late entrance after finishing up her duties as the director of the Kennedy Center concessions and gift shop for the evening. Washington, is a fun place-and people are doing the funnest things imaginable here.
Bob recounts how it all started - Eve Marie got divorced and decided that no one should ever be alone on a Saturday night. So she got a few friends together which turned into fifty or more at one point during the height of their popularity. The dinners are every Second Saturday of the month preceeded by a coctail hour with hors d'oevre platters typical to a region. Next month in June is 'Taste of Spain" and there will be tapas to die for. I am reminded that evangelizing isn't necessarily welcome- as all faiths are invited and the only qualification is that one be fairly single and fairly 'mature.' The price prix-fixe for unlimited wine, unlimited buffet style food, and a few choice deserts (take two) is $35. which goes toward various ministry objectives.
For more information stay tuned for more details on the Taste of Spain and tune into the Holy Trinity bulletin or email EveMarie301@gmail.com
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