Never before has a tray of pasta meant so much to me

Never before has a tray of pasta meant so much to me

I could so easily write a negative post. Life is anything but a field of roses right now but right in the midst of pain and struggles a little kindness, a hint of love, or even a tray of pasta can change things!

This post is dedicated to the manager of a pizza restaurant local to me. I will be printing out a copy and hand delivering it to her this week.

I need her to know that never before has a tray of pasta meant so much to me.

My children are struggling. I try and disguise that but I can’t. In the last month my son has endured some difficult medical test including 24 hours of wires glued to his head:

And a few weeks later having to have anaesthetic for an MRI to identify where all his tumours are growing inside him.

For any child these things are a real challenge but when you can not talk, have limited understanding and have a diagnosis of severe autism and neurofibromatosis these things just seem so much harder; for the child and the parents.

As well as this he has had to cope with a change of teacher at school and beginning overnight respite. He has been brave but in turn we have had to deal with some challenging behaviour.

For his twin sister these procedures and the ensuing changes to her schedule have been so upsetting and disorientating. End of term changes at school, a wobbly tooth and her friend being off school have made everything seem so much worse. This all causes one major difficulty: when stressed Naomi stops eating. Really stops eating.

Isaac loves his food. Anything edible is the highlight of his day. Among his many favourite foods are pizza, salad and garlic bread. One of the very few things his twin sister will eat is a certain pasta from a pizza restaurant.

Sometimes as a parent you do what you need to do to survive.

As much as I try to hide it it is very obvious even to a stranger that my children have struggles. Yet in this particular restaurant we always seem to be welcome.

By now you may have guessed what happened. My daughter broke her self imposed stress related fast and picked at her favourite pasta. As I took her brother up to the buffet the manager spoke to me with a smile and said she noticed my daughter only ever ate the pasta so she would go put more on ready for if she she wanted it. I wanted to hug her.

Never before has a tray of pasta meant so much to me.

I had to say something because by now I was emotional. I sort of whispered that Naomi has autism and loves the pasta and thanked her for her kindness.

I thought nothing more of it until I went to pay and the manager said she had something for me. She handed me a bag with an entire tray of the pasta in!

She had no idea of our story. She had no idea the stress we had all been through and the daily struggles we face. She had no idea that that pasta was pretty much all that was keeping my daughter out of hospital.

A tray of pasta.

Never before has a simple tray of pasta meant so much to me, or my daughter.

You don’t need to know someone’s struggles to be kind. You don’t need to know their story to show love. The smallest of gifts can impact another life so much. Be kind. Show compassion.

We have of course eaten the pasta now. But the love shown to my family that day lives on.