My mom is a real hoot! She keeps all of us laughing. She has a great outlook on life and takes things in stride. She doesn’t try to be funny. She is the most humorous when she is her normal self. When I was a boy she was always hovering over me and my brother like a mother hen. She wanted us to do boy things, but safety was always a concern. We lived in rural Indiana. My brother and I really enjoyed fishing. There was a lake close to our house. It was very deep and mom had visions of us boys drowning. One day we asked her if we could go fishing. She looked at us with a worried look on her face and said, “O.K,, I am going to let you boys go fishing, BUT DON’T GO NEAR THE WATER!.” That one became a real classic. Of course, our obvious response was, “Mom, how can we go fishing and not get near the water?”

Mom can be forgetful at times. One time she removed her false teeth to clean them. She laid them on the edge of the sink and bumped up against them. She didn’t notice what happened at the time. When she started missing them, she got on her hands and knees and looked all over the bath room floor for her false teeth. Exhausted from looking, she got the urge to pee. Afterwards, she flushed the toilet and her teeth went down with the ship. She walked around for days with her mouth all drawn up until her new teeth were ready. She laughed it off and admitted she must be crazy.

One weekend she kept our kids while we took a trip out of town. She brought her little dog named Prissy with her. When we arrived home, the kids met us laughing. They said, “You won’t believe what Mamaw did?” I told them nothing would surprise me. My oldest daughter was the spokesman. She said, “Mamaw was in the back bedroom calling for Prissy. She lost him. We were in the living room playing at the time. She walked in every bedroom and looked under the bed calling for Prissy. Speaking loudly from the bedroom she asked, ‘have you kids seen that dog?’ In a moment she walked to the living room where we were playing. She looked behind the couch and called again for Prissy. While she complained over the whereabouts of Prissy, We realized that Prissy was under Mamaws arm!” Mom had been walking around with Prissy tucked under her arm during the entire episode. Mom has arthritis. Since she took medication for arthritis, I deduced that she had taken one too many pain pills that day.

There were times when mom became “Doctor Mom.” She had the remedy for every affliction. Once, when my son had gas, she invited him to lay across her legs on the couch. She told him the best thing he could do was turn on his left side. When he followed Mom’s instructions she said, “Now just go ahead and let it out, you’ll feel better. Mamaw don’t care.” My son is married now and he still loves to tell that story.

I’m glad I have a mom that has never lost her sense of humor. When we can laugh at ourselves, it makes life a little more bearable.