{"id":220,"date":"2013-09-23T14:46:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T14:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=220"},"modified":"2014-01-22T11:09:35","modified_gmt":"2014-01-22T11:09:35","slug":"healing-from-loss-finding-laughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/healing-from-loss-finding-laughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing From Loss: Finding Laughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robin<\/a>The first thing I learned on the iPhone my son bought me was how to set ringtones.<\/p>\n

Long before my daughter got leukemia and died, I had set ringtones on my first cell phone. Marika\u2019s tone was like the sound of fairies dancing in a waterfall. My son\u2019s was a tango. Their father\u2019s was the first four apocalyptic notes of Beethoven\u2019s Fifth<\/a>. Through the years in and out of hospitals, and after a series of cell phone replacements, I lost the programmed sounds and never bothered to go beyond the default settings. But two weeks ago, with a fresh attitude towards technology and life in general, I went about assigning various tunes to my friends who supported me through tough times. Then, finally getting around to my family members, I discovered the bottom of the list of free options. My son got the barking dog. My sister\u2019s ringtone became the duck.<\/p>\n

During the next days, as friends called, I slowly started to identify their sounds and learn who to expect. If I heard a minuet it was Celia. Frenetic ascending notes meant calls from Barb or Liz.<\/p>\n

Then one day last week, as I was writing at the table overlooking the pond, I heard a duck. It seemed to get louder and closer. When it sounded like it was going to fly inside and land on the table, my dog and I rushed to the window to watch it descend. By the time I realized it was my sister phoning me I missed the call completely. But I got a good laugh.<\/p>\n

Later that evening I heard a strange dog barking in my bedroom. It took only a few seconds to figure out that my son must be calling. I dashed to find the phone and collided with my dog who was in hot pursuit of the canine intruder. As I got close to the phone I saw the cat crash into the bedroom door in his mad scramble to escape. He then flew between my legs, followed by my dog. I caught the phone before it stopped barking but was laughing so much I could hardly talk.<\/p>\n

For a short while I considered changing the ringtones. What chaos would ensue if my son called while I was in the library or at the doctor\u2019s? What if my sister, the duck, should phone when I\u2019m at Taughannock Farms Inn<\/a> dining on roast duck breast? But instead I combed the list of sounds and wondered who I could give \u201ccrickets\u201d or the \u201ctweet\u201d to.<\/p>\n

These days I need to find laughter<\/a> wherever I can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first thing I learned on the iPhone my son bought me was how to set ringtones. Long before my daughter got leukemia and died, I had set ringtones on my first cell phone. Marika’s tone was like the sound of fairies dancing in a waterfall. My son’s was a tango. Their father’s was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-25"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t