An agoraphobic client ate lying down over a bowl like an animal

Evidence

After making batches of turkey meat loaf, turkey tetrazzini, turkey meat balls, turkey hot dogs and sausages, turkey stew sans most spices, on my first day for her sample menu, I was then expected to set up a formal dining service at the foot of her king size bed with the television blaring for dinner ambiance. Apparently it was too difficult for her to sit up or leave the bed for longer then it took to use the bathroom so most of everything she did happened in the bedroom, which left the rest of the house looking like a model home. … When I served her dinner on a silver platter with her matching silver place setting, she asked me to place it on the antique mahogany coffee table that sat at the foot of her bed. Then with the help of her maid, she would roll over from her back on to her enormous stomach and shimmy herself down to the edge with her head now at the foot of her bed. Turkey Lady was no taller than 5’2” and most of her weight was all in the middle of her front side, making her look like an oblong sea creature with a very small head and little feet. She would then lean over the bowl and eat from it like a dog; that is if a dog could use a silver folk. — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs, 177

Categorization

• SHARE: A grotesque portrait of bed-bound disordered eating told partly for shock value — too specific to be broadly relevant, but worth relaying to a friend writing about domestic work or eating disorders.