Soon after Mom got to Laurelhurst Village, she formed a connection with Donna, the case nurse, who had an office off the dining room. Mom would often wheel herself into Donna's office and just sit with her, while Donna did her work. One Sunday, when Donna was not there, Mom tried the door and found it locked. She then wheeled herself to the nurses station and asked if someone could "Please unlock my office".

~

One of her caregivers tells the recent story of when one of the other residents across the dining room said something outrageous (as he was often wont to do). Mom pointed at him, and then pointed at her own ear and circled her finger (he's crazy). This happened long after we thought mom was still tracking what other people were saying. She had her sense of humor until the end.

~

More shared laughter: One summer morning, when Mom and Dad had their little house and beautiful garden on Ainsworth, Dad rolled out of bed and announced,“I think I’ll put on some old underwear and go outside and see what I can do” (meaning that before he took his shower he was going to work in the yard). But it was so funny out of context. Mom loved to tell that story, and it always had me in stitches.

~

I loved Mom's laugh, so whatever made her laugh must be remembered here (even if it was not about HER joke). Years ago, when Mom and Dad and I were driving across the country (flat and straight freeway), we came upon a typical exit that disappeared off into the distant fields. Dad said, “That road goes somewhere.” Again, we were in stitches. There were many times after that mom and I would, spontaneously and in unison, repeat those words, then laugh uproariously.

~

Mom and I often thought the same thoughts (and had a similar sense of humor). Like the time many years ago, when she had made chicken noodle soup, and she and dad and I were sitting down to eat. Dad asked, “What’s the story of this soup? Without missing a beat, Mom and I both said, in perfect unison, “Once there was a chicken...” (pre-saging the Portlandia episode about Colin). I don’t think Dad laughed, but Mom and I were in stitches. To this day, whenever I hear someone say, “what’s the story of ...”, I remember our shared laughter.

~

Since her fall at the beginning of January Mom's words had been garbled, but about a week before she passed, she was staring out the window into the dark night. I asked her what she saw and she said, clearly, “What do you think THAT is all about?” Those words, the last I would ever hear her speak, were so were so typical of her. Like the time a year ago, when she was rarely speaking complete sentences anymore, I had taken her downstairs to the reception area. Cherie was wearing a tiger-print skirt; I was admiring the skirt (to myself), and wondering where she had gotten it. Just then Mom says, “Would you look at that skirt”. Great minds think alike.

~

"Mom loved to play April Fool's tricks on my dad. One year she took ALL of his clothes out of the bedroom so that when he got up to get dressed, he had nothing to wear. She thought she had gotten the better of him, but he came out of the bedroom wearing an old frilly bathrobe of hers."

~

"One night Ozzie got out of bed and went to the bathroom. Do got up, made the bed, and hid in the closet. Another time he returned to bed, got in and rolled over to find Do wearing a scary Halloween mask."

~

"Do would sneak a spoon into a dinner guest’s coat pocket so as they were leaving they would naturally notice and to their own embarrassment pull it out in front of everyone. Wonder how many spoons she lost..."

~

"Do would show a thread on her shoulder connected to a spool of thread in her pocket. Naturally someone would pick it off and think they were unraveling an item of her clothing."

~

"She used to put clear Karo syrup on the toilet seat."

~

"In their first parish in Harlowton, Do went to her first of many ladies aid meetings. (LWML -Lutheran Women’s Missionary League) She didn’t know that they started each meeting by going around and saying a bible verse. Caught unprepared she quickly grabbed the shortest verse she knew, “Jesus wept.” Apparently there were a few giggles, a shocked look from Ozzie and the new minister’s wife made her introduction."

~

"As small children we loved to wrestle on the living room floor with our dad. When Mark was about 6 years old, Linda 4 and Gretchen 1, we were playing and got the idea to put curlers in his longish hair (which he usually wore in a pompadour.) Mom slipped out the back door, went around to the front and rang the doorbell. Dad, probably thinking it was a church member, jumped up, raked his hands through his hair and sent the curlers flying in every direction. The rest of us laughed so hard."

~

"When Mom wanted to do the laundry and I wanted to sleep , she stripped the bed with me still in it. Later, when she remade it, it was short sheeted."

~

"Do hated liver and other such meats although she did prepare them for Ozzie. One time he brought home a tongue (probably beef) and he kept asking her when she was going to fix it. She was at the kitchen sink while he mowed the lawn. She opened the window and said, “here, catch” and threw the tongue at him. He caught it and decided he didn’t want to eat it either."

~

"In order to make drying dishes more fun, Mom had us guess how many items there were. She always guessed high and always got it exact until we figured out that she was rewashing stuff to get the number right."

~

"We had head-standing contests (Mom and the kids; not Dad.) One time an elderly church member reported that she had come to the front door but hadn’t rung the bell because through the door window she saw all these feet sticking up in the air and thought she shouldn’t interrupt whatever was going on."

~

When Mom was angry she hummed hymns through tight lips. Probably her version of counting to 10. We thought it was to make us feel guilty.

~

Right after Ozzie died she asked, “when I get to heaven, how will I find Ozzie? There must be hundreds of people up there.”