“What a revolting development!” my 95-year-old grandmother screamed.
She yelled this when we told her that her memory wasn’t quite what it used to be. She yelled it when someone dropped a wine glass on the floor. She yelled it when we told her she had to move into an assisted living facility.
And whenever she was “yelling” she was really cackling with a huge toothy grin.
Call it a never-ending zest for life or dementia at its finest, in her later years, any unwanted life changes were all laughable “revolting developments”. Now that statement has turned into a mantra for my family. Stuck in a foreign country with a positive COVID diagnosis? Did business take a turn for the worst? Experiencing a heartbreak?
What a revolting development!
In the face of these unwanted changes, these repugnant turns expectations, we’re left with two choices: to laugh at the madness or cry at the unmanageability. At 95 there wasn’t much left that my grandmother could control. You see this often with the elderly, and they usually take one of two paths: they become grumpy and bitter, or jovial and full of smiles.
She was full of smiles.
When I experience an unwanted plot twist in my life, my initial reaction is to mope around, whining woah is me to anyone that will listen. But when I can laugh, giggling at the absurdity and unpredictability of life, I have a lot more fun. An old vagabond friend of mine texted me today, and when I told him I was stranded in the UK with COVID, he replied: “I love this for you. Is it bad that I’m glad you’re unwell?” He knows that I love a good plot twist.