BattyKiara posted:

Always ask old people about food. What they miss from the old days. And suddenly you have some old lady telling you about the time during WW2 when someone made a meat pie out of seagulls and an illegally caught fox. Or how much they miss a particular cocktail the local distiller used to make if you knew the secret password.

The last time I visited my granddad, age 79, he told me the worst thing about being on the final stage of cancer ward was that the nurses didn't bring him beer. He had lost his appetite, food just didn't taste right anymore, but he missed beer. Beer made him remember how until he retired, he would go out every Friday and drink exactly two beers with his work mates. So I did the only thing you can do in that situation. I went out and bought him five cans of different beers. He drank three of them right then and there, at eleven in the morning. Saved the other two for later. Happy day. (He died less than three days later. Doubt the beer had anything to do with that, but even if it did, no regrets. He deserved those last beers. Never did tell my mum about them...)