Week 12 and 13 - Tears and laughter

Numbers 12 and 13 of my 50 things took place in the same week.
Attend a comedy night and visit a hospice! I had done neither of these things ever before and the fact that they collided into the same seven day period was quite interesting and fairly poignant.
I think it's remarkable that we can be crying desperately sad tears one moment and then be laughing uncontrollably the next! - it's the joy and celebration of being human.
I can hardly believe that I'd never been into a hospice before, after all I've had quite a few close family and friends die, but often they've been sudden deaths. A hospice is of course a place for the dying, the terminally ill and their carers. Those that know they are in a process; sudden is replaced with an expectation of only one outcome. And no-one can tell you when that outcome will happen.
As you may remember me mentioning before, my father in law is terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and it was towards the end of March that we took him into St.Luke's Hospice in Cheshire. As I write this today, he has in fact just returned home and my praise for the staff in there can't be high enough. There was an atmosphere in there which is extremely difficult to describe. For a place dedicated to the care of the dying, there was a feeling of warmth, of peace, of love and even uncannily of calm.
When I received my tickets to go and see Miranda Hart (comedienne, for the uninitiated!) I had no idea that it would end up being the day before we took Keith up to the hospice. The show was absolutely brilliant, I totally loved it and for someone who doesn't laugh out loud a lot, I did, I laughed out loud! For that 2 hours Miranda transported us out of our own lives, worries and fears and took us on a journey together of shared fun and laughter. Moreover, she inspired us to be free, to be ourselves,to take ourselves a little less seriously and be a bit more child-like.
Humour and hospices can both do an extraordinary thing it seems; they can help you look beyond your own self-interest or self-importance. Now that's no bad thing - I am grateful to both.