Ever since my mom came to live with us my husband and my mom have played word games. They do puns etc. while we eat supper. My mom has always laughed and enjoyed it but in the last month I noticed her giving my husband a look that said that she couldn't figure out what he was talking about but she still laughed and pretended to play along.
My family has always joked and laughed. It is one way we get through hard times and we have had a lot of that in the last fifteen years. I have always been able to get a smile out of my mom if I say something silly.
Every night she asks me what her seroquel is for and I always say to settle her stomach. Last night just to be funny I said it would make her grow taller. She laughed but about 10 minutes later she stormed out of her room and demanded to know why the Dr. wanted her taller.
So I guess there will be no more jokes. It is a sad state of affairs.
By the way I'm back from my holiday in Newfoundland. I saw lots of icebergs but no whales. The icebergs are so much more awesome than in pictures. One small one floated right to the beach at our cottage. We had a wonderful time exploring the coast and seeing all the wonderful little fishing villages. It is so hard to come home and step back into my care giving role.

That's too bad. We can't joke anymore either, MIL takes everything so seriously, or thinks that she's being insulted.

I'm glad you had such a nice trip, it sounds great.

It is so hard when we see these changes. It's like one more little piece of them has gone. I'm sorry that any of us have ever had to go through this.

The only time we had jokes would be when Old Navy would try to crack a joke. But if DH or I cracked a joke, more likely than not ON wouldn't or couldn't understand the humor and would get upset. He thought we were making fun of him.

Their judgment and reasoners are definitely broken when they can't discern what is fact and what is humor/jokes/puns.

As much as grief I had taking care of Old Navy, I'm finding myself wishing he were here with his Biblical wisdom to guide our small church through some pretty rough going right now. I can't tell you what is going on, but I fear a major split before this month is over.

Laurette used to really enjoy puns between french and english, because many of the conversations in our family bounce between the two languages quite freely. Those kinds of advanced language jokes have been gone for a while now, but she still laughs at other things. She might not understand a joke, but she'll laugh at a face I make or a noise. Sometimes I'll look her right in the face and say "boo!" and she'll say "I forgot to be afraid!" The humor is still there, it just has to take a different form.

Ah ha!! Okay.......that is something I can do..........look for other ways for it to be expressed. Jokes are absolutely no good anymore, nor is good-natured teasing that all families engage in. Different forms, thank you for the insight.

My husband did get my mom laughing last night. He kept throwing lines from old movies into the conversation. She actually got some of them. How does she remember lines from movies and not my father who passed away 9 years ago??? Anyway it was sure nice to see her laugh.

The only laughs we can get out of mom now are when we tell her stories of things we did that were embarassing OR everyone's favorite, "let's make Judy throw up." I have an extremely touchy stomach and am grossed out at a lot of things, my brother or my nephew will spend days thinking of ways to show me things that will start me gagging. My mom thinks my gagging is hilarious and she will laugh for quite a long time about it.