Even In Death, Aunt Judy Keeps Me Laughing

My aunt Judy passed away two weeks ago. As posted here previously, she was diagnosed in February with cancer that had metastisized and was given a terminal prognosis. She spent two months in hospice care and passed quietly and peacefully.

Growing up, I have some very distinct of memories of Judy. First, she was a court stenographer for a good bit of her adult life, continuing on to become a legal secretary. When I was little, she would let me play with her stenographer's machine, trying to help me understand what the combinations of vowels and consanants translated to. She would do much of her transcription at home and had an early-model IBM Selectric typewriter which she also let me play with. I would watch her doing her transcription sometimes and I have never before and never since, seen anybody type as fast as she did.

Judy was also a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction, and probably kept the Book of the Month Club in business for many years. Same for costume jewelry manufacturers as she had a thing for rings (most of which my daughter Molly has now inherited).

My most beloved memory, however, was that a few times a year, my brother and I would have a "date" with aunt Judy where she would take us to lunch and then to a movie or show. These were very special times. Judy was not a parent and treated us like adults, and we loved these ventures. The key is that Judy always took us to see something funny. It was not that Judy was such a funny person, but she had a deep understanding and appreciation of comedy - something that runs deep in my family. It was my aunt that took us to see "Young Frankenstein" when it opened in 1974, and she also took us to see Monty Python live at City Center, also in the 70's. We had such great seats that I could touch John Cleese as he cavorted in the aisles.

This past Saturday, my uncle Gary and I went to pick-up Judy's cremated remains. From the funeral parlor, we went to her apartment to start going through her things. While there, Gary's wife Gail called to tell us that the funeral parlor was frantic and that they wanted us to contact them immediately. Only one thing could have possibly inspired such a call and sure enough, when we checked the name on the box in the shopping bag that had been given to Gary, it wasn't Judy's. They had given us someone else's ashes.

Thankfully, the ashes were intact and we were able to come back and exchange them for Judy's remains. As I've said in the past, my family believes in finding humor in everything and since there were no unfortunate outcomes, we couldn't help but giggle at the circumstances, and believe that in her own inspired way, Judy had given us just one more laugh.