My mom’s laugh was amazing.  It was infectious and, depending on the company, would often lead to someone crying or peeing their pants.  She had the ability to make people pee their pants!  You would think with this ability she would have been a stand up comedian or public speaker, but my mom was a behind-the-scenes kind of girl.  She did not like the spotlight and would don an adorably sheepish smile when attention was turned her way.  She was a picture of humility and gentleness, but her laughter was powerful.

The laughter was never as powerful as when she was with her sister.  They would both start laughing and wouldn’t be able to stop.  I loved when the three of us would get to do something together because it meant a lot of laughing was about to happen.

My mom’s family spent the warmer months at a campground about an hour from our house.  When we were younger, my family would spend a lot of time there too, but as we got older, and our schedules became full, we would only go for short visits.  One of these visits turned into one of my favorite laugh ’til you pee moments.

My mom decided to take my aunt and me on a ride in the Grandpa’s boat.  We cruised around the lake at the campground and then my mom drove through the channel to another lake and another lake.  We kept going.  I think I was in 6th or 7th grade because I was wearing my hot pink spandex biker shorts and a yellow t-shirt (I would wear the biker shorts under other shorts because that was the fashion.  (It may have been the fashion, but I was not pulling it off, especially if I was wearing them without the over shorts!) It was early evening and the cooler weather was coming in.  My aunt and I were sitting in the front of the boat, huddled together to keep warm.  We were talking and laughing.  I then had to go to the bathroom.  I told my mom, but we were on a boat three lakes over from the campground.  So she began the journey back and we kept talking.  I don’t remember what was said, but one of my mom’s bouts of laughter began and my bladder didn’t have a chance!  I peed my hot pink biker shorts on the boat!  This just turned into more hysterical laughter!

As we got closer to camp, my middle school self, became aware that the rest of the family was going to find out that I peed my pants and I didn’t want to live through the ridicule.  My mom said, “I have a plan.”  We were pulling the boat in and my mom asked me to pull the boat in.  This means I would have to hop out of the boat, into the water, pull the boat to shore and anchor it to the ground.  I put my legs over the the side of the boat and somehow (I think my mom pushed me) I fell out of the boat into the knee deep water on my behind.  I was wet!  I fell out of the boat!  No one would know I peed my pants!  (Until now!)  It was the perfect cover up.  We didn’t have extra clothes with us, so I borrowed something from someone, but every time I made eye contact with my mom or aunt that evening we would just explode into laughter.

I miss those moments of laughing with my mom.  I pray you have someone in your life you can laugh with until you pee your pants.  If you don’t, it’s never too late to find that person.  This has been a good reminder for me that I need to laugh more and stop taking life so seriously.  Of course there is serious stuff going on, but I need to remember that you can take on hard things and laugh while doing it!