I Am Grateful

BY NANCY DAVIDOFF KELTON

November 2026 issue

Thanksgiving used to get me down.  Our family get-togethers never remotely resembled Norman Rockwell paintings.  That is when we managed to get together at all.  Some years we went to my Aunt Yetta’s with a case of soda.  My mother’s family was in the soft drink business.  Some years we have been too scattered to make it to the same table at the same time.  

This Thanksgiving I am rejoicing for many reasons. Some are large. Some are small.  Many are in between. 

Here are some of the reasons.

I am thankful I will be a guest and not the hostess.

I am thankful that the person who baked chocolate chip cookies last year put in only a few shells and no one choked on them.

I am thankful that the chocolate chip cookie baker and I will be attending different Thanksgiving dinners this year.

I am thankful that the relative who makes insensitive remarks about my preferring solitude to big parties, about my less than perfect vacuuming job, my less than perfect haircut and my less than perfect everything else is also going to another dinner this year.  In Florida.

I am thankful that my husband reminds me that I do not have to engage with this relative or with anyone who makes me feel uncomfortable and suggested that when and if I am with her or with anyone who with whom I do not wish as a friend that I should consider not opening up to them.

I am thankful that my husband is my husband, that we can laugh at such things when we are alone.

I am thankful we are alone a lot. 

I am thankful that when I asked him to marry me, he said yes  

and I would clearly ask him again.

I am thankful we do not go to our gym together.  He is thinner than I am and can do more stretches.

I am thankful that I am not the oldest member of my gym.

I am thankful I can still do the stretches I did in physical therapy when I had sciatica.

I am thankful I have the strength to do plank poses and can hold them longer than I used to.

I am thankful sardines are one of the few foods for which I need to use a key to open.

I am thankful for the friends who have helped me with my times of despair and thankful, too, that I have been able to help them with theirs. 

I am thankful that my friend Cindy invited me to her house after school the first day of 6^th grade and asked me to stay for dinner that night and whenever I wished.

I am thankful her mother was such a good cook and baker, and I was on the modified American Plan at their house until we went to college.

I am thankful they made a surprise 17^th birthday party for me since I did not have a Sweet Sixteen.

I am thankful Cindy always had hours to listen to what I had to say.

I am thankful that now that she is deceased, I have photos of her all over my house and talk to them regularly.

I am thankful my mother did not force me to buy clothes she liked invariably reminding me that I would be the one wearing them.

I am thankful she did not make me take ballet.

I am thankful that she encouraged me to play the piano, practice my lessons, and often sat down on the bench and sang along when I played.

I am thankful that as I got older, I learned to understand her and she learned to understand me.

I am thankful we learned how to hug each other and say I love you.

I am thankful that my father thought I was funny, laughed at so much of what I said and did, and enjoyed playing games with me, taking me on errands and teaching me to play Ping-Pong.

I am thankful that both of my parents loved the theater and classical music and took me to great plays and concerts in Buffalo, New York, our hometown and elsewhere.

I am thankful they encouraged me to live in Manhattan.

I am thankful I learned how to take advantage of what Manhattan has to offer.

I am thankful for my wonderful children and grandchildren who do not live in New York but are very much in touch, are in good health, and I get to see them, talk to them, laugh with them, and celebrate special occasions with them even when they are not on the date of the occasion.

I am thankful I am in good health.

I am thankful that if I were to live my life again, I would live it the same way I am living it now.         

The End