Sophia looks over at the elderly stranger sitting down next to us to eat his plateful of dinner.
Amazed at the size of his meal, she mutters, "Are you going to eat all that food?!"
"What did you say," the old man says. "You'll have to speak up. I don't hear real well."
"Are you going to eat all that food!"
"What's that you say?" He looks to me for help understanding her.
I'm slightly embarrassed by Sophia's innocent rudeness and because I now have to repeat her comment loud enough for him and others to hear.
"She wants to know if you're planning to eat all of that."
"Oh. Well, I think I can manage."
"How can he eat all that food? That's a lot of food!"
"He must have been working really hard today, honey."
"Yes, that's true. I have been working hard today," the old man says.
He asks for her name, and we then have a pleasant conversation about his European heritage and how his German mother-in-law was named Sophia, too, but she went by Sophie.
And when he finishes his dinner, he proudly tilts his plate to show Sophia that he ate it all up. She smiles back at him shyly, and I just laugh to think that she just made a friend by insinuating that he is a glutton... ; )
