My Two Favorite Things

 Most people can't, but I can actually narrow all my favorite things into a first place two entry tie. My two favorite things are my family and humor. Saturday morning my nephew passed away. He was sixteen days old. He had been born with Down syndrome and had holes in his heart. My dad called me at 3:30 in the morning to tell me. It’s a universally excepted truth that no good can come from a 3 AM phone call, so when the phone rang I knew it wasn't Publishers Clearinghouse. My first thought was for my brother and sister-in-law. How are they going to get through this? How are they going to be able to do what needs to be done over the next week? How are they going to find happiness again? My answer was simple, family.

My parents, my brothers and sister, their spouses, me,
my daughter, my nieces and nephews.

I have a huge family and when tragedy strikes we come together to support one another. Four years ago, on Christmas Day, my husband passed away. I was 27, he was 28. Our daughter was eighteen months old. My family rallied around me. I could not have gotten through the long days and lonely nights without them. The love and support I felt from them physically sustained me through the most difficult time in my life. One night, just days after my husband had died, one of my brothers made some inappropriate comment. I can’t remember which one had made the comment or what he’d said, but I started laughing. I laughed so hard I think I might have peed my pants. It was the single best laugh of my life. My grandfather passed away in April. (I now have over 150 direct relations and sadly, death is something we’ve learned to deal with.) If you were sitting at my table at the luncheon after his funeral, you laughed your arse off. Yesterday, at my brother’s house, we laughed till our guts hurt reading funny stuff online.

Holy Cow!!! He was my Facespacetweet+ friend!!

On my Facebook page I like to post witty or funny comments. Saturday and Sunday I just didn’t have it in me to be funny. I didn’t think it would be appropriate. I thought I’d be committing some sort of grieving faux pas. Then I remembered that experience with my brothers after my husband's death and my grandfather’s funeral and yesterday sitting in my brother’s living room. People need to laugh. When people are grieving they need some sort of joyful release. So, starting today, my Facebook page will be littered with ridiculous, stupid, strange, weird, and witty comments. Starting tomorrow, my blog will be back to its snarky little self. I don’t care if people think I’m not giving the occasion the solemnity it deserves. This is how I grieve. Deal with it cupcake!!