Ladies Who Lunch

Yesterday afternoon, I had a delightful three hour lunch with an old comedy buddy of mine. The restaurant was a dive... some little pizza joint... but there are times when food is irrelevant. In fact, we talked so much our chewing just got in the way.

I ordered a turkey wrap which turned out to be the size of Shaquille O'Neal's foot. My friend ordered a salad. Just a salad. Not a high calorie Cobb salad or a cheese covered Mexican salad but a plain old vegetable salad. She didn't even have the decency to order blue cheese dressing. It's no wonder she weighs as much as a third grader.

We hadn't seen each other since we performed together last May. But, we did spend a significant amount of time on the phone as we were losing our mutual friend, Joy Little, to pancreatic cancer.

The funeral was only two weeks ago, so there was quite a bit of crying during our get-together. But there was also a ton of laughter.

I don't know how people who lack a sense of humor can cope with tragedy. To an outsider, some of our jokes may have seemed macabre or inappropriate but, to us, they were necessary and completely understandable.

My friend has taken this death very hard. She was extremely close to Joy. I feel very bad for her. But then she told me her favorite quote from Tallulah Bankhead: "Pain in life is inevitable. Suffering is optional".

We'll have to have lunch more often.