I was on my way to spend time with my brother, Ron, and my sister-in-law, Gail, who both struggle with the effects of lung cancer.  They live only four miles from each other in the beautiful countryside of Cleveland County where I grew up.

As I left home for the two-hour drive, I prepared them each a container filled with banana pudding and carefully packed them in a cooler.  Stopping first at Ron’s house, I placed the two containers in the fridge and sat down to chat.  At lunch time, Ron enjoyed half of his pudding and commented on how delicious it was.  I was pleased because his appetite has not been very good lately.  He has lost over 100 pounds because of his cancer, chemo, and radiation.  To see him eat brought joy to my soul.

Late in the afternoon, I prepared for my visit to Gail’s.  Gathering my belongings together, I reached in the fridge for the remaining container of pudding for Gail.  When I arrived at her house, she was entertaining her great granddaughter, Paislee, who saw the container and wanted some pudding immediately!

Gail opened the container, preparing to put some in a bowl.  I noticed, though, that she hesitated, pushing the contents from side to side.  She looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face, “What are the red specks in this?  It really doesn’t look like pudding.”

Paislee let out an, “OOOh!  What is that?”

Dismayed, I joined them, peering in the bowl for myself.    “I don’t know.  They must be bits of vanilla wafer,” I said.

“No, it looks like meat,” she said as she moved the contents from side to side.

“Meat!  It can’t be meat,” I said.  I took the spoon from her and examined the bowl for myself.

Then it dawned on me!  Ron had eaten sausage gravy for breakfast.  I must have gotten the wrong container!

Sheepishly, I tried to explain what had happened!  I had simply taken the wrong container from the fridge.  After all, from the outside, they looked similar—both white with little lumps.  Unfortunately, the lumps in one container were bananas—the ones in the other were sausage bits!  A simple mistake!

We both laughed hysterically over the case of mistaken identity.  I had tried to convince her that sausage gravy was pudding—but she wasn’t buying it!

I jumped in the car and headed back to Ron’s to return the gravy and retrieve the pudding.  When I told him what had happened, he and I shared a belly laugh as he polished off the rest of his pudding and I returned his sausage gravy to the fridge for tomorrow’s breakfast!

On my return to Gail’s, she and Paislee finally enjoyed some pudding while still laughing over the mistake.

It had been a good day!  Despite the seriousness of their situations, they had enjoyed themselves.  I was reminded of the scripture passage from King Solomon, reportedly the wisest man in history:

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” (Proverbs 17:22 NLT)

It is very easy in times of illness to fall into despair and worry rather than taking time to enjoy the moment.  Solomon said it well:

“For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3 NLT)

Last Wednesday was our day to laugh—and it felt good!

How about you?  Do you or someone you know need a good laugh?  Try it.  You’ll both feel better!

p.s.  I’d love to hear from you.  Please comment below