We laughed at Death

My family currently consists of 14 people and counting. My grandparents had four children and from there each child had at least one to two children who then had a couple kids of their own. In a family this big, you know that losing someone is inevitable. But you don't really think of it. Each holiday and birthday we gathered in my grandmother's tiny house until it seemed it would burst at the seams. We lifted our dinner plates to dodge young ones as they rushed by in play. We yelled over to each other for conversation because crossing the sea of people and furniture seemed more ridiculous somehow. Even more exacerbating was the time we'd spend debating over celebrities, politics, movies, and more. With such a kaleidoscope of personalities, it wasn't hard to find a differing opinion. Yet when our kind and soft-spoken grandfather said "It's time to pray." the room fell silent immediately. We argued and we fought and we made sure to always get the last word but our love for grandpa trumped all of that. No argument was so important it couldn't be put away if he asked us to. No one's voice was more important than his. He listened to all of us in our time of need and thus every person whether in through blood or marriage owed this man a life debt of love and respect. We knew this pillar of our family structure would one day leave us. But when he did the shock and pain still felt fresh and sudden. My grandfather died, in his house, peacefully. He simply fell asleep and moved on. I will always be grateful for that. After he passed the family set to figure out what we would do for our sweet and devoted grandmother. She was a widow now with no source of income. We decided to put together a gofundme. We raised over $14,000 for her to completely wipe some of her debts. There had never been a more proud family with bigger smiles. We sat her down that dinning room table like it was Christmas. Asking her to check a link in her email. As she virtually unwrapped her present to see the love her community, family, and friends had shown; my aunt decided to tell a simple joke. My aunt said, "We decided to help you raise some money so we decided to sell your firstborn son." My grandmother without missing a beat and having not heard her but seen the amount of money now in her bank account looked up and said "Thank you". Her eyes watered with genuine gratitude at what we perceived was the selling of her child. My uncle's face of betrayal was hilarious. We laughed and turned it into the joke of the week. We buried my grandfather and had a visitation. All extremely hard days for the family but we had a safe harbor to go to. A joke and moment of unexpected joy that found its way to us even in this dark time. We were grieving and death had taken someone very important to us. But we are a family that learned to enjoy life from a man who never missed an opportunity to tell a joke. We met death and we laughed.