The night before was spent cutting up cucumber sandwiches into quarters, and packing up the Irish tea into our bright ceramic kettle. There was no guarantee my grandma would like cucumber sandwiches that day or even have an appetite, but the last time I saw her, she couldn’t stop talking about the tea parties she used to have as a kid, with Irish tea and cucumber sandwiches. 

 I walked in to both my grandma and grandpa sitting on the couch with the TV blaring the daily news, which an hour later they would complain about being ‘fake’. My grandpa greeted me with a big smile and fumbled around with the remote yelling at FOX News to shut up and turn off.  I turned to my grandma, she looked beautiful as always, her hair perfectly curled and her lips stained with red lipstick that marked all of us at family reunions. But for a second, her face was blank, you could see the wheels turning in her head as she desperately tried to grasp who I was from the back of her head. I set the basket of cucumber sandwiches and the tea kettle on the table cluttered with colorful medicine and vitamin bottles. I sat down next to my grandma, and slowly introduce myself as her granddaughter. The word “granddaughter” always brought a smile to her face, it seemed to remind her of the seven kids she had raised and the eleven grandchildren they had given her. The dementia had slowly been stealing her away for the past 5 years. She was still Grandma, but she wasn’t Grandma who kept chocolates in her purse, and built extravagant fairy houses with me. I helped her to the table and unpacked our tea party. Her soft hand with chipped red nails reached out as I set a plastic plate with a cucumber sandwich infront of her. 

“Honey, I don’t like cucumbers, they give me a headache.” She said sweetly. I smiled and returned the sandwich to the container. I poured the lukewarm Irish tea into her cup, as she told me about how the only acceptable tea, was Irish tea, because, “The Irish know how to drink.”  My dad and grandpa shared smiles of gratitude throughout the meal as she told me about the tea parties she used to have as a kid, with irish tea and cucumber sandwiches.