Several years ago when her two sons were young, and mine were a little younger, I was chatting with my Aunt Paulette on the phone.
At one point in our conversation, she shared with me that their dishwasher had stopped working.
My reaction was one of horror and extreme sympathy for their unimaginable plight.
She told me wryly, "Families have overcome greater adversity."
And then I laughed realizing how ridiculous I must have sounded.
Now it's our family's turn for this plight--this little bit of adversity. Darn it!
With a kitchen remodel in view, our dishwasher has decided that enough is enough.
David purchased it in 2000, after the previous one stopped working. He didn't plan on replacing it right away, since it was just him living here, but it only took a few days for him to run out of dishes. He gave me a call and we were on a date dishwasher shopping.
As I've told you before, there are very few 13 year old dishwashers still working out there . . . and now, unfortunately, ours is no longer among that number. I've cleaned out the crud, run some vinegar through it . . . all the old tricks that kept it limpling along before, but it doesn't seem to want to come out of it this time. I understand. Cleaning up after this family can be exhausting.
We never had a dishwasher in our house growing up (a convenience my parents invested in after their child labor left the house), and I didn't have one in my college apartment, either.
But, it only took me one day after becoming Mrs. Melius and moving into this house to know that I never wanted to be separated from that wonderful applicance. Ever. Again. Add in four more little people using dishes and our bond became stronger than ever. I knew this day was coming. I was just hoping it would wait until its replacement had arrived.
I suppose families have--and will--overcome greater adversity, but I would still appreciate a little sympathy for this unfortunate situation that has befallen our family.
And for my dry, rough dishpan hands.
Hahaha! We never had one growing up either (my parents used to say they had three dishwashers: Sarah, Gretchen, and Trina) but in our first house we had one. I didn't even know how to use it; Derek had to teach me how to load it. But it didn't take long to start depending on it. I feel your pain being with it the dishwasher with such a big family!
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