NJ SPICE

This is my father’s favorite pizza, roasted red pepper and sausage from Conte’s, so that is what I brought to him for dinner the night before he moved into assisted living. Conte’s opened in 1941, the year Dad graduated from Princeton High.  He’s been going there ever since.

So consoling was the pizza that when we (an entourage to rival Paris Hilton’s) arrived the next morning to escort him to Acorn Glen (right on my way home from work), he was already heating and eating the leftovers for breakfast.  But that didn’t stop him from enjoying lunch in AG’s bistro a scant hour later with the rest of us! 

Since then, while my uncle holds down the fort at the old home, Dad has taken advantage of just about every activity (and they are pretty constant) that comes his way, thanks to great staff that makes sure new residents get acclimated and introduced to everyone quickly.  The place is amazing, and doing him a world of good.

The chef even made him yalanche (rice-stuffed grape leaves)!  And it turns out that there is even a staff member there who speaks some Armenian, a rare treat for Dad to get to converse in his parents’ native language occasionally.

Good pizza, supportive friends and family, Acorn Glen…my father (and my brother and I) have much to be thankful for right now.