Shortly after his 79th birthday, Dad was rushed to a hospital in Florida with a grim series of diagnoses: heart failure, kidney failure, fluid in the lungs and he was septic. He was put in the Intensive Care Unit and put on a ventilator.

I was summoned by my uncle to come to Florida as quickly as possible. The tone of my uncle’s voice was ominous… my father did not have long to live and I should consider funeral arrangements.

When my wife, Ronnie, and I arrived at the ICU, our hearts sank as we glanced through the window into Dad’s room. There he was, lying motionless with tubes everywhere, multiple IV lines, and a ventilator doing his breathing for him. My mother and uncle were standing next to him, looking grim and feeling helpless.

As a practicing Clinical Psychologist for 25 years, I have helped hundreds of people deal with the inevitable death of their loved ones. In fact, some of my most rewarding moments involved bringing a sense of peace to dying people, helping prepare them for “their transition to the next place.”

Moreover, as a Professional Speaker, I have always been proud of my ability to motivate people so they can overcome any obstacles in their lives and find inspiration and happiness, despite their tragedies. But, looking at my parents through that window, my mind was blank and my emotions overwhelming. Nothing I rehearsed on the airplane sounded appropriate and my feelings of fear and sadness predominated.

Ronnie squeezed my hand and we entered the room. My father was sleeping. We embraced my mother and my uncle. Suddenly, Dad opened his eyes and seeing us, there was a bit of a smile, but his color was grey and the situation really looked grim.

Since he couldn’t talk (being on the ventilator), he motioned with his free hand that he wanted to communicate to us by writing. We summoned the nurse to bring a clipboard, pencil and paper. Dad began to write very slowly. “I can’t speak because of this tube in my throat and it is very uncomfortable.” We read the note and nodded with sympathy, squeezing Dad’s hand. He again reached for the clipboard and as he pointed to the tube running down his throat, wrote, “You won’t believe this, but, it took them five tries to finally get it in!” Once again, we read his message and nodded with understanding and sadness.

Suddenly a big twinkle appeared in Dad’s eye as he again reached for the clipboard. I knew that look. It was the look my dad always made when he invented a hilarious one liner to perfectly fit the situation. As he looked at my mother wistfully, he wrote underneath his last line about taking the nurses five times to get the tube in, “It reminded me of my honeymoon with your mother!”

The room erupted in laughter when I read the last comment. And that was the beginning of a flood of hilarious comments that Dad penned for us, his nurses, his doctors and his visitors over the next three days.

Yes, three days… you see, after the second day, when my Dad started laughing and writing hilarious anecdotes, his heart and kidneys began to function normally, the fluid cleared out of his lungs, he was no longer septic and the ventilator was removed. His throat was raw, so he continued to write on the third day. On the fourth day he was able to verbalize his humor and Dad was released from the hospital at the end of that day! Four days… from death’s doorstep to recuperation. Like Norman Cousins, who wrote about how laughing saved his life when he was dying (“Anatomy of an Illness”), my father LAUGHED HIMSELF INTO HEALTH!

Most of my parents’ friends are in their 80’s and are challenged by health issues. Dad repeats his hospital stories to everyone he knows and uses his experience to inspire and encourage them. As Lila Green says, “ You don’t stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing!”

For years I have always spread the word to audiences about the wonderful research showing the powerful effects of humor and laughter on the internal organs and the immune system. Little did I know that the most powerful evidence of this would one day hit so close to home. I am now convinced beyond any doubt that, as Lila concludes, “those who laugh…last!” With that in mind, with all of my therapy clients, I use humor and laughter as part of their therapy.

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