…and More Laughing
I’m going to write something here that some would find cruel and definitely not politically correct. But it was part of the experience of the ten years of hilarity and fun we had.
During part of this time I was working at Devereux and I was enjoying the company of “my people.” Part of the “enjoyment” was a very special kind of humor. I never laughed at the clients. But sometimes one of them would say something so silly that it would make me laugh NOT AT THEM, BUT WITH THEM. Then I would tell P and M about it.
One of the clients I drove around with in the early mornings was a lady called Betty. I don’t think she knew she was funny but she had this one sentence she said over and over again and then she’d laugh. The sentence was “Great!! We’ll get something to eat when we get there!!” Over and over…
This was not related to anything going on at the present. I couldn’t help laughing at the silliness of it. So I told P and M this and they understood the fun side of it. They knew it wasn’t cruel. Then, every time we were getting ready to go some place, one of us would say….you guessed it. Then came the giggling. Life was so much fun with my people. One time, Betty called me a “chicken head” whatever that meant. It didn’t mean anything!!!
Also I had David whose diagnosis was “atypical psychosis,” meaning, I gathered, that nobody understood what was wrong with him. He had the most bizarre behaviors–it would be impossible to describe it all. He was not violent. But he made two sounds which were not words. Over and over he’d say “D..I..E” over and over and over and over..of course one would think that he was trying to say “DIE” but that’s not correct. He didn’t know what words were. He was OK in the van like they all were. But another weird behavior he had was drinking fluids. At dinner he’d try to grab all the other clients’ juice and water. So you had to have an eye out for this. He knew where all the drinks were stored in the basement–and of course he knew where this was–and the closet was firmly locked with a key. He’d go down there and he kept trying to open the closet door. And when we went food-shopping: one staff member unloaded the boxes of cans of juice and soda with David watching like a hawk. As everybody said: THEY MAY BE CRAZY BUT THEY ARE NOT STUPID. He’d sometimes find a way to steal a drink as we were putting groceries away. He was very strong and very quick.
The joy of our family life was fed by the joy I experienced at Devereux. I must say once again that the three of us laughed, not at these poor lost souls, but at the incongruity of life and the fact that there was joy at Devereux, something nobody would believe. Most people think my job was yucky and horrible and dangerous. At times, yes. Maxine certainly thought so. But I’m glad I had the guts to throw myself into it and find what happiness was there to be gained. And of course, at home, when one of the three of us wanted to be funny in some way we chanted: “D…I…E…”
lgmwriting 