Keep Laughing

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As many regular readers know, my beautiful sweet wife of 47 years died a few months ago. Jane was the love of my life and losing her as you can imagine has left an enormous hole in my heart and in my life. The pain has been awful but I have found solace in G od and prayer. My religion helps me. My devoted sister and brother and a few friends have been extremely supportive and it helps as well. Still the pain remains.

There is nothing I can do to keep the pain from coming over me every single day, but there is a way of getting my mind off of my grief, for a while at least. I reach out to my comic friends. Abbott and Costello. Laurel and Hardy. They bring me some much needed relief and remind me how important a sense of humor can be to combating sadness and heartache. Even if it's only for an hour and a half or the length of a two-reeler.

I was introduced to these two great comedy teams through my dad when I was a little boy. I would sit next to him in front of the TV and watch him laughing out loud at Stan Laurel's crying like a baby and Oliver Hardy's exasperated expressions. I remember how my dad would double up when Lou Costello would get tongue tied and couldn't get his words out when he got scared. Soon I appreciated the humor too and looked forward to those weekend mornings we would sit on the couch together and laugh.

Mom was never as into these guys as was my dad, but she liked seeing us having such a good time watching these old movies. Soon my younger sister and brother joined us and we three kids grew up loving their pictures as much as dad did. I'm sure these times spent watching these wonderful funny men did a lot in shaping my sense of humor and outlook on life. Thanks partly to them I grew up with comedy in my soul and was able to make a living at it.

Now it is some 70 years later. I am no longer that young child, I'm an old man. I have had a lifetime of experience in this world. I know about loss. I have lost pets. I have lost friends. I even lost my career and my beautiful home. I have lost my parents and now my wife. Thank G od I still have my sister and brother and their children.

And after all this time I find myself right back to where I started, watching Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello, looking to them to help me find my sense of humor once more.

It doesn't stop the hurt, but it puts it on hold for a little while.

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