Donald's Donuts will always have a special place in my heart. It's not just because the donuts are pretty good, it's also because of what was happening the first day I tried them. It was the day of my father's funeral, and I decided to bring one of my cousins with me and meet the rest of our family there. My cousin is what we would call "special." He looks like everyone else on the surface but is behind developmentally. And he is a total sweetheart. He said this donut shop was his favorite and asked if we could pick some up before we went to the funeral.
First of all, just trying to get there was an adventure. My cousin kept calling it by the name of another donut shop in town, so when I put it in my GPS we started going in the wrong direction, as he kept telling me I needed to turn around. I finally shut my GPS off and asked him to just tell me how to get there. Lo and behold, a short time later we make it there. "That's not the name you told me, cousin." He said, "Uh oh."
We go inside and he excitedly peeks into the case, and I told him he could get whatever he wanted. Well he starts ordering all kinds of donuts, a whole dozen in fact. "What do you need all those donuts for?" I chided him and he ducked his head sheepishly. He told me he was getting some for later and I figured he wanted some to take home with him. I instantly felt bad and apologized, after all, I had told him to get whatever he wanted. So the flurry began again, cake donuts, pink donuts with multicolored sugar sprinkles, chocolate covered rings, and traditional glazed all went in the box as my cousin's beckoning finger pointed them out with careful consideration. And as a bit of lagniappe, a handful of donut holes was dropped over the face of the whole ones right before the lid was lowered. I wasn't really hungry but I popped a donut hole in my mouth and was surprised at how good it was anyway.
I was an assorted box of emotions myself: mad, irritable, sad...mostly I missed talking to my dad every day, his prayers for me and hearing him say, "I love you." It was a hard, dramatic day and I won't get into all the specifics here. But after everything was done, after I read one of my dad's favorite Psalms (51 and 91), after I heard the bugle blow and they folded up the flag that draped his coffin, after I had cried all over my cousins shoulder, we left and got back into the car. And what was waiting there for us? Donald's Donuts. My cousin said, "Oh boy, these will be so good now." My stomach rumbled as he passed me the box. I inhaled about 3 of them. Then I realized he had planned for this very moment when he picked out all those donuts earlier. "Cousin, you're smart," I mumbled through a mouthful of sweet, sticky bread. He grinned knowingly at me, his mouth covered in shiny crumbs. read more
