Diary of a New York Waiter

"I miss you." Spray-painted on a sidewalk in Paris, October 2005.

For those of you who have been missing Josh's serial of Diary of a New York Waiter, here on Goûter, don't fret. Josh has opened up his own independent blog, which is hilarious, poignant, and inspiring.

In his latest post about life as a waiter at "Café Roman," Josh reflects on what it means to be alone. As observes two of Roman's most loyal customers, Picky Pam and Two-a-Day-Tom, he confronts his biggest fear of growing old and lonely.


It's what each of us fears most, being alone. And yet, if you look around you, so many of us do end up that way. I find that I look towards my own future and the possibility of spending a great majority of my mature years by myself, and instead of accepting it, I deny, deny, deny. "I'll have a life partner and he won't die first."Or, "I'll have lots of children...children who will be content spending significant amounts of time with their old, lonely Dad."

But then I think of my grandmother, who lost her oldest of two daughters (my mother) to breast cancer, and who lost her husband two years later to heart failure. She, a woman who spent her life giving her entire self to her family, spent these past eight years sitting abandoned, re-watching episodes of Little House on the Prairie, welcoming any distraction no matter how familiar it is. There are, however, things I believe my grandmother, had she pushed herself to do so, could have done to better surround herself with peers and friends so as not to feel so utterly alone. She could have joined a book club - she reads more than anyone I know. She could have worked some kind of desk job that her bum knee would not have prevented her from being able to do. At Cafe Roman, we have two extreme regulars, who, like my grandmother, are elderly and alone. Every day they come in, both with their own quirks, ready to visit their respective surrogate families of waiters.



To read the rest of the post and more about Josh's adventures, visit Diary of a New York Waiter at http://newyorkwaiter.blogspot.com.