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Whose Birthday Is This Again?
It is MY birthday celebration with our family. Everyone is singing “Happy Birthday” while Mercy (my baby sister, 17 yrs old) slowly walks toward me with a cake-full of candles. Isabel (my niece, 4 yrs old) is standing faithfully by my side. The song completes, and the audience hushes, waiting for my wish. Isabel’s eyes fixed on the glowing wax atop the cake, she leans in to me and whispers, “Do you want to help me?”
The Solitary Purpose of Marriage Is…
My family is in the kitchen, some of us cooking dinner, some of us relaxing, some playing, some conversing. Isabel dashes across the kitchen toward me and asks emphatically, “Aunt Joy, why are you and Benjamin married if you aren’t going to have any kids?”
Isabel and Aidan
Name Calling Humor
Our family is around the dinner table, which is always a noisy and happily chaotic event. Through the din, I hear Isabel call someone a name, and her father corrects her firmly.
Daniel: “Isabel, it’s not nice to call people names. No one here is laughing. Do you see anyone laughing?”