Family Fun Stories: The Rabbit

 

 

Today, a little lighter fare.

Family stories are the best, aren't they? We really get a sense of a person from what they choose to share, and those stories they choose to retell, again and again. Some stories are told at the teller's own expense, which demonstrates that they could laugh at themselves.

This is one such story. It comes courtesy of my brother Joe, who posted it back on 27 October 2015 on Facebook. It was our mother Ann Gilbride's birthday, and we were sharing remembrances of her to commemorate the day, five years after her passing.

He began:

Missing my Mom on her Birthday today. Mom had a lot of funny and interesting stories to share. 

And then he launched into one of my all-time favorite Mom stories, one that we heard often and loved to retell ourselves, about the stuffed bunny pictured above. 

Joe continued:

This stuffed toy rabbit—forever unnamed—was my favorite toy that never left my side when I was real young. 

I asked her once, "What's up with the ears? They're so strange for a stuffed toy."

She said, "Well, you had gone in to get your tonsils removed, but you never wanted this thing to leave your side. While you were in surgery, the nurses at Parma Hospital thought they would spiff up the bunny's whiskers, smile, and ears, They made new ears out of some surgical stuff to give him a new set. A new smile was sewn on, and he got some new whiskers."

But that wasn't the really fun part. 

Joe:

Well, Mom had no idea any of the nurses had done any of this to my toy rabbit. So when they came and got her to be by my bedside, they told her the following, "Well, Mrs. Gilbride, we sewed his smile back on, gave him new ears, and fixed his nose."

At this point, I can almost see the sheer confusion spread across Mom's face as she considered what she had just heard.

Joe: 

Mom thought for a split second or two that they were referring to ME—not the rabbit! She said they scared the bejeebers out of her for a minute. 

When Mom told this story, she always expressed that her anxiety over young Joe's surgery was so great, that she just didn't comprehend for a moment that the nurses could be talking about anyone but him. Then she would crack up at herself, and her younger self's naivete.

Joe concluded his Facebook post by saying what those of us in her family so often think:

I really miss her wealth of family history and funny stories to share!

Mom wasn't the only one with stories though. We all have them. So share those stories. Take a minute today, dig up a doozie, call up a sibling, cousin, or grandma, and tell that story. Post it on Facebook. Write it in a journal or blog. Tell it to a friend on a walk. 

I'll bet you'll be smiling when you've finished.

Until next time...

 

If you have a funny Mom/Memaw/Ann/Margie story to share, email me at ngcintx@gmail.com, and I'll do my best to include them in Leaves on the Tree. 

In the meantime, here are a few other stories about our Mom, Ann Kozlina Gilbride.  

• Guardian
• Mom's Chocolate Covered Cherry Caper
• Mom's Big Trip
• Nurture

 
 

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NOTES

Joseph Gilbride, personal page, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/joseph.gilbride.9 : accessed 26 February 2023), "Missing my Mom on her birthday..." 27 October 2015.