The funniest person I know

My mom.

A month of mothers wouldn’t be complete without talking about an individual without whom I would not be here – my mother, Helaine Roberts.

My mom is many things.

Dad and mom

A homemaker who was always there for us when we got walked in the door from school.

A lawyer who commuted over an hour each way to law school to get her degree while miraculously maintaining that home.

A CPA who taught newbie CPAs. I visited her class one day during Passover. She gave a student from Ghana a piece of matzah to try. His response, in his beautiful accent: it’s like eating paper.

A survivor who has built an amazing life since my father passed in 2022. She has become a knit wit, with yarn as her co-pilot, her spirit animal. And which brought her a new dream job at a local yarn store. She has become a traveler, knitting under the aurora borealis in Iceland.

But most of all, to me, my mom is funny. Hilarious. Always has been. I remember she looked at my father one time when he was going on about something at a length that was too long for her and said “you’re beginning to get diarrhea of the teeth.“ (Even now, as I write this, I can’t stop chuckling.)

And that’s only one of many, many examples I could point to of a wit that pops out effortlessly, lightening up any situation, particularly those immediate days, weeks, and months after dad passed.

Only one person has come into my orbit who is on her level in funny. It should come as no surprise to any of you that that person is my wife. Maybe another time I’ll go into how the wife’s funny is different than mom‘s funny.

Happy month of mothers, mom. Love you lots.