A Cheery Countenance

This little story may not seem as funny to my readers as it was to me when it happened. But at the time, it was one of the funniest things that had ever happened in my entire life. December of 2003 was a difficult period for my family. We had some family issues and at the same time my husband was having a total hip replacement. My sweet parents came to spend a few weeks with us, to help me out during this difficult time. 

My mother is no animal lover but my husband is. We had three dogs. My poor mother was sweetly putting up with the dogs while also trying to keep my house cleaned, my laundry done, and meals for the family cooked so I could be at the hospital with my husband. One particular day, one of our dogs spent the day eating grass, when she let him out, and then proceeded to throw up on the family room carpet. My mother patiently cleaned it up.

By late afternoon that day, my husband came home from the hospital. As we sat around the dining room table preparing to eat the meal my mother had cooked, we all bowed our heads to ask the Lord’s blessings on the food. It is my parent’s custom to hold hands as they pray so when they visit, my family does this as well. That night, we all bowed our heads, closed our eyes, and reached our hands out for the hand of the person next to us. Then, my father led us in prayer. When the prayer was over; my mother, with hand still stretched out, looked at my youngest child and asked why his hand was wet. He explained that she was not holding his hand. She looked in the direction of her hand, let out a scream, and jumped up from her seat. 

As it turned out, when my mother reached out to hold the hand of my youngest child, one of our dogs stuck his nose in my mother’s open palm.

My son said he reached his hand out but no one took it so he put it in his pocket. My mother, on the other hand, put her hand out with her eyes closed and thought she had taken hold of her grandchild’s hand when she actually had taken hold of the dog’s nose. The dog sat very obediently and let my mother hold his nose throughout the entire blessing.