“What did you do, save someone’s life with a turkey club sandwich?” she joked.

I smiled and made the friendliest eye contact I could by looking into Ann’s beautiful pale blue eyes and said, “No, no lives were at risk, but I think I saved someone’s wedding day.”

Ann’s eyes seemed to soften and become more interested in what I was saying. “Tell me more,” she said.

“I was dating a women who was a bridesmaid in a wedding. The wedding was out of town and she traveled ahead to that town a couple of days before. I was invited to the wedding but would not be sitting with her at the head table. Her name was Linda and the bride’s name was Susan – not Sue. She didn’t like being called Sue. I knew absolutely no one at the wedding and had only met Susan a couple of times. I also knew no one where the wedding was. Linda knew everyone and was staying with friends. I was staying alone in a hotel room the night before the wedding. So I was very much flying solo.

“I arrived at the church for the wedding in plenty of time and was seated on the bride’s side of the church. The service went well and I took some pictures of the bride and her bridesmaids. Afterward I wanted to go right to where the reception was being held, hoping to at least get a chance to talk to Linda for a little while and tell her she looked great.”

At this point, I paused to see if that comment on the looks of an ex was a problem, but Ann’s expression didn’t change, so I went on.

“The wedding party had plans to do photos and all of the usual stuff between the ceremony and the reception, so there was quite a bit of time between the two. I followed the directions to the reception and it was a kind of lodge in a park. The lodge was a large open room with a stage at one end, a serving area at another and a well-equipped kitchen behind the serving area. Tables were set up and it was attractively decorated. What was missing was food—servers, a buffet line or anything that would work for a wedding reception, which was to begin in less than three hours. One lone woman was sitting next to some boxes, looking as if she had been crying. I was beginning to think that maybe I was not at the right place and that she was not someone who would want to help a lost person. But I went up to her and asked a dumb question. ‘Excuse me, is this the location of the Oliver wedding reception?’”

“The woman looked and me and now I was sure she had been crying, and it was about to start again.”

“Yes, but this is a disaster. The caterers just dropped off all this stuff and left. There is no one here to set up the food, the buffet or anything.”

“‘Are you saying that the stuff in these boxes is the food and catering supplies for the reception, but you don’t know how to set it all up?’ I asked.”

“‘Yes,’ she said.”

“I glanced at my watch. ‘No problem, we have tons of time to set this up.’”

“She looked at me. ‘Do you know how what to do with all this stuff?’”

“‘Sure, no problem.’ I said.”

“I started unpacking boxes and telling her—her name was Mary—where to put things. It was clear that it was a hot and cold buffet. There were hot plates and the food was still warm and needed to get on the warmers. The cold plate consisted of traditional cold cuts, cheeses and garnishes. The caterers had supplied lettuce, tomatoes, radishes and various other accoutrements for salad and sandwich fixings. It was a very well equipped food choice for a wedding reception.

We laid out the tablecloths for the serving tables and there was more than enough room for a buffet line for a reception of this size. Mary was glad to be doing something and I was having a great time setting up the buffet. They even supplied sharp knives and I took to chopping and cutting veggies to be placed on the line.

Mary and I worked for about 30 minutes before some early out-of-town guests started arriving. Mary told them about the caterers dropping off the food and that I was directing the set up. Everyone who arrived got put to work immediately to finish getting the reception ready. I gave orders and did the more complicated food preparation. There was a lot of cutting to do and I can chop extremely fast – like the chef taught me – and there was even a good chopping knife. Much of the rest of the food prep could be done by any experienced cook, and everything else just needed someone to be told what to do or quickly shown.

I kept checking my watch and our progress was not far behind what we would have expected at the deli. The only problem was that I was the only one who knew what to do. Nonetheless I was having fun. It got pretty hot in the little kitchen, so I took my tie off and put it around my forehead to keep the sweat out of my eyes and out of the food. We had no hairnets, so this was the best I could do.