There's this story in my family about my cousin Doug, who is now probably in his 50's, when he was a little kid. I think the story goes that his parents were taking him to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas. They were trying to teach him to be polite, so they told him that even if he doesn't like his gift, he should still pretend that the does and be happy about it.
As he was unwrapping one of his boxes, he lifted the lid and found that the gift was wrapped in tissue paper. He didn't understand that the gift was inside the paper.
Being polite, he exclaimed, "Ohhh, paper! It's just what I've always wanted!"
That phrase has become a running joke in our family.
Yesterday, Jack got a Halloween card from my Aunt Barbara.
The envelope was addressed to him.
When Geoff opened the card, he found an obituary notice cut from a local Philadelphia newspaper. My Aunt had written, "I thought you might be interested in this."
Geoff and I were both totally confused because we didn't know this man.
Then we read the card and it was addressed to someone other than Jack.
When I called Aunt Barbara to tell her about the card mix-up, I said, "Thank you so much for Jack's Halloween card. An obituary is just what he has always wanted!"
0 comments:
Post a Comment