The Power of Laughter
I believe in the power of laughter. Laughter is a natural medicine that fights even the most deadly of dieses. Some may not believe, but I know first hand of its true powers.
My aunt Debbie was the greatest lady on this earth. She was a smart, determined and spunky type gal, whom could always be seen with a smile plastered on her face. She loved to sit outside and read in a rainstorm, even if it was in the middle of the night. At church or any family gathering she was always the one who everyone flocked to, because they knew that she was the “party”. She could also cook the pants off any grandma in America, because her chocolate chip cookies were to die for. As well as all of these things, she also had the softest heart I know. Whenever anyone was sick, she dropped whatever she was doing and grabbed her pre-baked Baptist casserole and served it to the family in need and stayed by the bedside of that sick person till the very end. Even if it wasn’t a sick person, she would even bake some of her special cookies for her favorite niece (me) who had gotten turned down by her crush at school. She could always make anyone fell better, because she knew that by making him or her laugh the pain would go away. She was like a personal “on-demand” comedian who had that special power given from God himself.
My aunt Debbie was a three-time cancer survivor, but it was in the summer of my sixth grade year when we heard the news that my aunt had been diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time. My aunt Debbie had gone through the first three phases of cancer just by the sheer medicine of the medical world, but due to so many chemotherapies her white blood cell levels were too low to continue treatment. The doctors said that it was a miracle that she had survived cancer three times already, and she was now on her own without the help of medicine. My aunt lived the next six months on her own medicine; laughter. Deborah Ann Champagne died December 19, 2006.
I never thought that God would put someone so awesome into so much pain. As I look back on those years, I always thought that it was the power of our wonderful doctors that healed her each and every time, but I now know that it was her laughter that healed her each time. That is why I believe in the power of laughter.