Laughter Joins Hearts

You can easily laugh at others and sometimes you can laugh at yourself with ease. The key in my life is to have someone to laugh with. This allows the other person to remind you of the funny moments when life has thrown a ton of bricks at you. In my childhood my sister was there to turn to and find something funny to watch or laugh at. In some of those sad moments of childhood - my sister found ways to cheer me up and we would laugh (and cry) together. I am grateful for a Grandmother who always found a practical joke and some ole slap-stick humor to be the best remedy this side of heaven.

My adult life leaves me without the constant companionship of my sister (although she is close to call on) and my grandmother went to the everlasting place of Joy in 2002. Life however did not make me wait to much longer until I met someone who would remind me how to find humor in the most darkest moments I would face. In the middle of my personal hell of a divorce and a failed attempt to pretend I could change someone, I met a few people at work who saw my need for some good laughs. My newly found friend Melissa was all too excited about life and always had "the bright side" of things up for discussion. She also has the ability to make anything funny...me, or work or someone we could make fun of (only in clean fun)! She could make me laugh at myself without any effort. Between my quick comebacks and her clever humor we were like a match made in comedy heaven for my soul. It seems that even when I need to do some dreadful task at work and she was the messenger of death - she did it with humor and a smile. I was grateful for our time together in the workplace.

It was also because of her that my life would change forever. As a new management "team" member would be joining my store and she had the inside scoop. She was funny and witty about who this guy was and how great he was at his job. (He was already her mentor...little did I know.) She had no designs for match-making and only knew a small amount about the turbulent life I was then leading. (Being followed several times a week by soon-to-be-ex or in-laws and such ridiculous natured stuff.) She was available to lend an ear - but I kept most of it under wraps. Regardless - she was sure I needed to find some more things to smile about. Her solution was Asa's sense of humor. She mentioned one day that I should really come sit and have lunch with her and her counterpart/ boss because we all had such similar "funny bones" and we would make lunch a riot together. Asa was not too happy with fraternization among employees...not yet any way!! (wink, wink)

Long story short: We took each other by surprise in many ways. My new friends at work became so much more. Melissa was our Maid of Honor in our small informal toes-n-the-sand beach wedding less than a year later.

Asa is my best friend and my closest companion in love and laughter. We have found laughter in the darkest of days. When people you thought would never abandon did just that and when no one was there but us. There was laughter.

One night we awoke to what sounded like coughing but with a smell of yesterday's juice. We knew that it was gonna be a long night. I grab the closest towel to run to the scene when Asa grabs my arm to say, " - stop! Just use the clean part of the sheet they have already thrown up on...don't make more laundry...." This was typical of his man-theology regarding laundry.

A few months later, we were dressing the first turkey I ever had to make and tears were welling up inside my eyes as I missed my grandmother so desperately. She was the best and I could not live up to the memory of the tastes of her turkey. Asa grabbed the recipe card and then the pan with the turkey. As he made the turkey dance the polka from the pan... he laughed about how he would eat whatever was to become of that turkey! Asa declared that if the turkey was good I would get all the credit and if something went wrong - it would all be his fault. The thought of a man who had recently mis-read a simple recipe and ruined two nights worth of dinner now claiming to make a turkey alone was enough to cheer me up for the rest of that long day.

There are so many more moments that I am sure I will share but I just wanted to remind you that laughter does in deed make the heart grow fond. It grows with joy and laughter always brings a sense of reality that things could almost always be worse.

When my laugh may fade into gray for a moment in the overall length of this lifetime; May I always remember the warmth of laughter with a loved one can warm the heart a far greater time than comedy alone. - Shelley