Unfortunate Umbrella Incident

Yesterday was Memorial Day, and we gathered at Mamie’s for a barbeque. Good food, family, friends we hadn’t seen in a while – a very pleasant evening. Except for the wind. It was blowing hard enough that we had to hold onto our plates and food to keep them from being swept away. I vaguely remember, at some point, Mamie coming out and asking if it had gotten too windy for the umbrella. Someone replied that it had, so Mamie assumed that it had been taken down and put away and didn’t pursue it as she was involved in being the good hostess that she is.

This morning, she called me in tears. She had found the umbrella outside the patio wall, smashed up against the house with a broken rib. She had planned and saved to buy that umbrella last year and had taken such good care of it – taking it down and stowing in carefully in the garage whenever the wind or weather was iffy. She doesn’t have the money to replace it and is heartbroken at its loss.

Neither one of us was there when the umbrella flew off so we don't know how or what happened. Thus far, no one else has mentioned seeing it happen. Actually, the incident is not just unfortunate – it is devastating to her.