5 notes &
A shock to Richard’s system
One of my favorite parts of Richard Prangley’s story, which I told in my book “Waiting for Home,” concerned the strawberry pie he ate religiously at the Big Boy restaurant near his first post-institution apartment.
In an interview for the book, Richard, a natural night owl, told me that eating the pie - particularly at 2 a.m. - was a delicious symbol of freedom from the institution where he had been wrongly held for 15 years.
Even since then, eating out has been a big deal for Richard, who, nearly 50 years after gaining his freedom, still savors it. Consequently, the current restaurant closure has been hard on him.
After I took him shopping earlier this week, he wanted to buy me lunch, and could hardly believe that he and I couldn’t sit down at a table at YaYa’s.
Once inside, he saw that all the tables were empty. He settled for take-out.
