Many of my fellow bloggers have such creative minds. They seem to be able to turn stories of reality int0 great comedy stories or routines. Like Mark and his Yegg’s mysteries or Mitch’s tales from his youth, which always stir a laugh or more. I have also been blessed to be able to turn some of the most discouraging events into something funny. For example, the senior group I collaborate with on radio episodes to present to other seniors in our community are often based on real life events. Eventually I may put some of my own experiences into book form, but it seems they keep coming faster than I can keep up with lately.

A week ago, Monday, my husband had his 9th urological surgery to hopefully repair a problem he’s been dealing with for this entire year. The surgery went well, until Friday when he was in excruciating pain. That’s not the funny part. He was again admitted to the ER and the hospital. That’s not the funny part either. He was going to be released on Sunday and called to let me know. When he called, he discovered that I had been up all night with extreme pain and nausea. That’s still not the funny part but wait. It’s coming. He then arranged to have my daughter come and get me to the ER. I had a number of kidney stones that were causing all the trouble. So, I was admitted to the hospital too. I know, it’s not even remotely funny for both of us to be in the hospital, but we were. His stay was extended, and I went in for surgery. Here’s the funny part – ready? We had talked about going to a nice hotel for our 58th wedding anniversary last month but spent it instead at the urologist’s office. Now we were spending the weekend, in a $10,000 a day luxury hotel – in separate rooms on two different floors.

My room was lovely. Prior to Covid, it was a pre-delivery room in the maternity ward. There I was in a room designed for birthing, giving birth to several kidney stones. (that’s another part of the funny stuff.) Our pastor stopped by to see me and asked if Paul and I were in for a two-fer. Since I have difficulty hearing there were the incessant questions – “What was that?” and “Sorry, I can’t hear you.” One nurses aid asked if I needed a toothbrush and I thought she was asking if I had a juice box.

My point is that we can dwell on the difficulties we face as we get older with discouraging hearts, or we can laugh in the face of them. I prefer the latter. We both arrived home on Tuesday and are glad to be here. We both slept well and even had a continuous dream. Paul dreamt he was in the backyard tracking raccoons while I was dreaming of a huge raccoon running through our yard. Either we are experiencing too much time together, or we are actually becoming one person.

There is more to come, but I’ll leave you with this much today. You’re not going to believe what happened next. My life with the man I married has been filled with ups and downs, but we have learned to laugh at our adversity. I think that’s what Robin Williams meant in the above quote. I also know that God loves a cheerful heart. Because of that, we continue to create funny stories. Reality really is much funnier than you see on TV.