A friend e-mailed me on the fly to let me know, if I didn’t already, that a mutual acquaintance had died.

That’s awful, I thought.  The three of us had worked on a number of projects over the years and we had a healthy friendship. The last time I had seen her, she was as enthusiastic and energetic as ever.

Goes to show you, I thought glumly as I pulled up the obituary online.

I read through the first paragraph and stopped and started again. The name was right.  And yes, our friend’s husband had already died but I was pretty sure his name was George, not Henry.  And she did have children but not Jack and Harry; she had 2 daughters, Lucille and Darlene.

Wellll – it wasn’t who we thought it was. I scrolled down and saw a very nice note; it was from the friend who had e-mailed.

She offered sympathy to the family and then reminisced about the deceased. She mentioned her generosity, her kindness and how flat-out hilarious she was when she entertained troops dressed as Chucky Chipmunk. She went on to say something about her never being forgotten by all the hundreds she had dazzled over the years.

I couldn’t help but think the deceased was laughing her head off, I sure was.