The Last Laugh
1970's

I was still married to my first wife Barbara, when my father-in-law Henry died of a heart attack at the age of 70. I really loved Henry, he was a kind and caring person who loved to fish and hunt, and I would really miss him.

I was on my way to his funeral at the Church, and I just knew it would be filled with a lot people who would cry and moan that they loved Henry, and these people would be lying. I'm just telling it like it was. The only thing that most of Henry's family wanted was his money and he knew it. But I will start this story from the beginning.

Henry and his wife, Ann (Barbara's Mother) owned a couple of small farms in Upstate New York. Theirs was not a happy marriage, and Henry and Ann had nothing in common except their children, who by this time had all grown and left the house. Some of their children ran one of the farms, and Henry basically ran the other by himself, since Ann wanted nothing to do with him. This really became obvious when he got sick and needed her to help him, and she refused. He required some assistance with his bandages and Ann told him she refuses to touch his body so he could go get someone else to do it, and he did. Henry knew a nurse who he asked to help him while he recovered. She told him that he could move into her house and she would take care of him. Henry never returned home. The Nurse and her children became Henry's best friends and the kind of family Henry never knew. They all went fishing and hunting together and truly loved one another.

Henry continued to run his farm and sent money home to his wife, but he moved his things out of the house. He had started another life and I was real happy for Henry.

Here it was, 20 years later and Henry had died of a heart attack. We pulled up to the Church and there were almost 50 people inside. I sat towards the back and hoped I would not have to be there long. The service started, and sure enough, most of the people in the room were wailing and crying about how Henry was this, and Henry was that, and how much they loved him, and would miss him, and on and on.

I want to say that when someone dies it is nice to remember the good things about that person and reflect how they touched your life. That is different than what I was hearing from these hypocrites. I just wanted to be out of there.

Then I heard something strange. I couldn't locate it at first, but I was sure I was hearing laughter in that room. I kept looking around and then I spotted him. Henry's ghost was up towards the top of the ceiling laughing and howling like I had never seen. He obviously thought the "show" he was seeing was incredibly funny. Well, you know what happens when someone is laughing like that, I started to laugh too. Then the laughter tuned into roaring and I was out of control. All of a sudden I realized that everyone around me was staring at me with a shocked look on their face. I didn't know what to do, so I put my hand over my eyes and faked crying. This was OK for them and they resumed their own wailing.

This funeral turned out to be a great way to say good-by to Henry. He knew that I saw him and we had a great last laugh together.

 
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