Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Laughter - the best medicine

 It seems I have only been sharing stories of sadness lately. I apologize for that. When thinking about my mom, I picture her laughing more than crying, so I should be paying tribute to her in laughter rather than in tears. I’ve been racking my brain for a good story. Here’s the first one that’s come to mind.

My mom, my daughter and I went to Virginia for spring break in 2008. Val was a senior in high school and wanted to go somewhere fun. Mom had relatives in Virginia who she hadn’t seen in a long time. It seemed like a good place to go, and after visiting the relatives and doing a little tourist stuff, we could chill out at Virginia Beach.

 Well, we certainly did chill out. I knew it wouldn’t be balmy in March, but I thought it would be at least tolerable along the Atlantic coast. It was so ridiculously cold and windy. I can’t believe Val worn flip-flops the day we visited Jamestown.  
 So we were just coming out of one of these buildings, the wind buffeted us a little bit, and Mom started laughing hysterically. She couldn’t get a grip, she just kept cackling.

“Mom, what happened?” both Val and I asked, though we were laughing by then just as hard, for no good reason other than that laughter is contagious.

Mom finally got it together and took a few deep breaths. In the cold, all of our noses had been running. As we stepped out of that building, the wind caught Mom’s nasal drainage and carried her snot off like a kite in the wind.

I guess you had to be there. But just so you know, at times, Mom had a wicked sense of humor. 

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