Laura J. Davis

Last week I shared with you the passing of my friend Susan Minns. Sue's philosophy was "always find the funny". Well, I'm here to say that I have probably attended, for the first time in my life, the funniest and funnest funeral/memorial service I've ever been to. It was no coincidence that Sue wanted her funeral to be called a "going away party."

It started out normal enough. We enjoyed a slide show of pictures of Sue's life. We listened to people share humorous stories about Sue. We sang her favorite songs and listened to a soloist who did a beautiful job. Her husband and sons also had a few words to say about Sue and many of us laughed, as well as cried.

Then the preacher got up to speak and halfway during his sermon he put on a red clown nose. The video below will clue you in on why he did that. He also asked everyone to take off one shoe and hold it up in the air. Hundreds of red shoes popped up throughout the church. Why? I'll let Sue tell you, "The way I see it, if you have to spend your days in a wheelchair, you can either whine about it or your can seize the opportunity to wear smokin' red high heels with zero discomfort."

Sue chose the red shoes and we all honoured her by wearing them as well. As the service came to a close the preacher explained that one of Sue's favorite songs was about to play (it was by Stevie Wonder) and he said Sue had one final request of us - "She wants you to dance."

And so we danced. We danced our way out of the church laughing, smiling and crying (a wee bit) over how our friend turned our mourning into joy.

I left inspired. My tag-line above says, "Living a Joy-filled, Surrendered Life." That kind of life requires that you try to find a reason to be thankful and joyful in any situation. I'm going to add to that and start looking for the "funny" in life as well. I might even sport a clown nose once in a while. We are, after all is said and done, only here for a brief moment in time. So, let's make the most of what time we have left and find the funny.