Fearless Females: The Gift of Laughter

[Women’s History Month Fearless Females Prompt, 24th of March, Shared Traits]

My Grandma Shellabarger lived through alot.  Her life was a rough road, one that might have crippled others very easily.  Through it all, Grandma could still laugh.

The trait I share with her is the gift of laughter.  Not just any kind of laughter…hysterical laughter.  It’s a trait that my Grandma, my Mom, and all my female siblings share.   I believe my young nieces have the gift as well. Maybe it’s hormonal 😀

All that needed to happen is for one of us to start laughing.  It doesn’t matter who.  The laughter would spread like a chain reaction.  It didn’t even matter if you were in on the joke.  You could be in the other room, walk in, and catch the laughter train.

I’m not talking a couple guffaws or a chortle.  I am talking deep within the pit of the stomach with tears streaming down your cheeks with stomach muscles spasming got to catch my breath kind of laughter.  It happened almost every time we were together.

Others thought we were a little weird.  Maybe we were.  But, once we got going we could not stop.  Sometimes all we had to do was look at each other to start laughing all over again.

There are so many traits my Grandma could have shared with me.  She was stern, tactless, obstinate, and bossy.  It is her ability to laugh hysterically from the confines of her wheel chair that I hope to remember the most fondly.  Whenever my Mom, my sisters, and I get on one of our rolls, I think of Grandma and all the good laughs we shared.