[Original Mike]

After the bad stuff for RC, I want to share a funny thing with A. My mom was on a road trip to a neighboring county last week and saw a couch at a furntiture store that she really liked. Well, Mom drives a small car and the couch was too big to fit into my SUV or my sister's pickup (without sticking out the back some ways). Being the thrifty Pole that she is, Mom did not want to pay the delivery charge if she could do it cheaper.

Well, Mom called me last night and asked if one of the boys might be availalbe to help her get her couch today. Since RC spent the day running errands with me yesterday and R is so physically small, I asked A. He jumped at the chance to spend time with Grandma. Off-handedly, I asked her how they were going to get it home. "Oh", she said "My boss is letting me use the work van."

Well, my mom works for a FUNERAL HOME!! So, she and A will be driving the van they use to pick up the bodies an hour away to get this couch. When I told A he was going to be riding in the "meat wagon", his eyes got wide. "Are you serious??" I told him not to worry, that they didnt have to make any delivieries along the way and the couch was the only pick-up.

Anybody else take a funeral home van for a joyride with their grandmother???

[athikers]

hehehe

I have a friend from high school who does that for a living... gross.

[Barksum]

I burst into laughter about this one!! What a great opportunity for A and his grandma. You'll have to post with his experiences.

[tybeemarie]

For your information, it is COOL to ride around in a hearse in a non-funerary capacity. I think it is so sweet that your son wanted to hang with his thrifty Polish grandma! The hearse is a bonus, Mike, really.

[kay]

I had to laugh at this one - I wake up to M*A*S*H every morning - and this morning the episode is one where they had to warm a patient up by soaking him in warm water, and the only thing they had to soak him in was . . . an unused casket!

You couldn't have asked for a better bonding and memory building experience with Grandma for A. And yes, we do want to hear all about it!

[sundara]

This brings up a funny family story for me.

My great-granddad used to drive an ambulance, and one of the details was sometimes to pick up DOA's from various places in town.

So one year, a man was eletrocuted, and G-Grandpa and his coworker pickup the guy in order to get the body to the morgue. This happened on the bad side of town, and they had to drive across some really bumpy areas at the railroad tracks.

Grandpa and his co-worker nearly jumped out of the moving ambulance when the dead guy started talking to them right into their ears - it seems that the bumpy ride jolted him enough to restart his heart, and he wanted to know who the h*ll they were & where were they taking him!

[Original Mike]

Well, they made it back with relatively little emotional scarring to A. Of course, mom picked him up in her car and they drove to the funeral home to get the van. She parked outside the garage and told him "Let me just look in to make sure we don't have a body waiting." According to mom, A's eyes bugged out. The coast was clear, so they hopped into the van and left.

In the end, they had a nice trip. Mom took him out to lunch for helping her with her errand and he really liked that. One neat thing with A and RC is how they just soak up any and all family stuff: weddings, birthdays, even road trips with grandma.

[sundara]

Your mom is funny!! I would have done the same thing. Bet he will be laughing about her joke & retelling that story to his family years from now. What a great thing -family humor so real & so healing.

Thanks for sharing this with us!

[lovemy6]

LOL! What an awesome story! You've gotta stop though! I'm starting to think my next kids will be teenaged boys!

[saranbr]

LOL about the funeral van road trip! What a great family story for later though!