Humor is Mankind's Greatest Blessing

Mom and I's ICU Selfie


So...my dad is sick.  I mean really, really, CANCER SUCKS sick.  The kind of sick where you want to scream and cry and wonder how could someone endure the pain and suffering he is enduring.  Where you want to make everything better, but you can't, and its awful.  I know, because, despite what you may think, I have felt all of these things.  I have driven home from the hospital, crying because I was embarrassed to cry anymore there.  I have cried and griped and been mean and snappy--not proud of it, but it is true.  Last night was HORRIBLE.  The ICU (see, I am not kidding around here) has a policy that no family can be back in the unit from 6:30-8:00, and at 6:30 my dad was in bad shape.  As I put my arm around my mom and we walked down the hall to the family, we were both sort of shell shocked.  When we got to the lobby, my poor mom had HAD ENOUGH.  She cried, and she yelled, and we just stood there. I mean, I hugged her, but you can't hug that away.  She took a breath and said she was sorry, and another woman, part of the ICU waiting posse we have gotten to know, said absolutely not to apologize.  Then, I made a joke about the catheter.  It's true, and it was a tasteless pee joke.  And my mom smiled.  And then we giggled through our tears.

Through all of this yucky, my mom and my sister and I have found a way to giggle at stupid stuff.  We have jokes about my dad's medical history (which is long and painful and NO FUN) because we have repeated it so many times.  We have laughed about bad smells in mysterious dank hospitally-places, women who have carried potato salad in their coats, stupid stuff on the internet, and whatever we could find.  And when this is all over, and everything goes back to whatever normal might look like, I know what I will cherish.  I will cherish the fact that my mom and my sister and I got through this with the help of giggling.  Whatever is coming our way, one of us will find something completely inappropriate, and, through our tears, we will smile a little, then we will giggle, and then, we will laugh, together.  Because when you feel like you can't do anything, I bet you can laugh--and trust me when I tell you, that is something!

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