Nice family

It is my uncle Abe's 96th birthday and my parents are visiting him in the care home where he lives. Uncle Abe is suffering from Parkinson's disease and can't walk, sit or speak properly anymore. In short: he spends his days lying in bed. Very sad actually. Uncle Abe is a widower, his wife Fran died a couple of years ago, with two daughters, Rita and Karin, and a son Ben. When my parents arrive at the care home Rita is already there. "O what a nice surprise", she says excited (as if she hasn't telephoned a couple of times making sure that my parents were coming to her fathers birthday party) and starts rearranging the chairs. She parks my mother next to uncle Abe's bed. After a while Rita disappears to check if the coffee and cake-arrangements in the care home's livingroom are ready. My father, who wants to stretch his legs after the long car journey, is going for a walk. My mother is left behind with uncle Abe, who is asleep and starts snoring louder and louder. Until.......he stops snoring, stuck in sudden silence with his mouth and eyes partly open. "Gosh", my mother wonders, "maybe he's dead!" And she looks at him suspiciously. But.....no sign of life. Then Rita returns. "Well, the coffee is almost ready!" And she looks at uncle Abe. "Oh, is he asleep?" "Uhm, well, asleep....", my mother hesitates. So Rita takes another good look and takes uncle Abe's hand. "Dzjee, all cold! Maybe he's dead!" And she flies off to find a nurse, leaving my mother with a cold and silent uncle Abe. My father and Karin enter the room. "O how nice of you to come all this way to visit dad!", Karin says. And looking at uncle Abe: "Is he asleep?" "Well", my mother hesitates again, "uhm, asleep......". Karin takes uncle Abe's hand too and wonders: "Maybe he's dead..?" She grabs his shoulders and shakes, yelling in his ear: "Come on dad! It's your birthday. Don't die on us today!" But no response from uncle Abe. Son Ben arrives. "Is he asleep?", he asks, looking at the pale and silent body in the bed. "Uhm, well, asleep", my mother and Karin say as one. "Maybe he's dead. And on his birthday of all days." "Oh well", Ben says academic, while taking a seat. "Dead today or dead tomorrow. He will die some day. I would kill for a cup of coffee. They told me there would be cake!" And at that point two nurses enter the room and shake uncle Abe back to life again. So he didn't die on his birthday after all and they all (they take uncle Abe too) go down to the living room for coffee and cake to celebrate. At the party Ben tells that he visits his father every week and then rearranges the furniture and photoframes, much to the excitement of my uncle Abe who growls and groans and points his finger to make clear that he doesn't want that! He wants everything exactly the way it was when my aunt Fran was still alive. "Well, it is so boring otherwise", Ben explains. "If I tease him a bit he gets a bit more lively!" My mother told me this story, tears in her eyes. But not because she found the whole thing upsetting. Oh no! They were tears from laughter. "Hahaha, we almost had a birthday party with a corpse!" She also did the faces and a good imitation of uncle Abe snoring and then dying (or so they thought). We almost nominated her for the Oscars. Nice family with a strange sense of humour. Which I inherited, because I too find this a very funny story. Uncle Abe died a couple of months later. Just for the record: we all loved uncle Abe. He was a very kind man. I so hope that there is 'life' after death and that he will take his revenge by haunting my nephew's house. Then we can all get a good laugh out of it, including uncle Abe!