Zipper Monsters

Our Christmas Tree is up. The lights are on and it's well decorated, well at least the bottom half. Ruby and Sadie are here, right now as I write this, and they've put a lot of energy into the bottom half of the tree. It looks wonderful. They are sitting in the front room colouring pictures of Santa and Rudolf. It's an amazingly homey kind of scene.

But earlier we had come in from taking them out to see the Christmas lights and decorations in our area. It was cold so we came home sooner than we'd planned. When we got in, Ruby asked for help with a stuck zipper on her jacket. I offered to help because Joe was helping Sadie get her boots off. I took hold of the zipper and decided to pull it up before trying to pull it back down. It came up easily. Then as I pulled it down a bit I got struck with a bit of whimsy. I pretended that the zipper was fighting back. I screamed and fought with the zipper which went up and down and up and down and down and up. The coat flung out and and back and was entirely out of control.

So was Ruby.

She was crying she was laughing so hard.

Sadie came to watch.

Suddenly Sadie's coat was on and her zipper was stuck too.

For nearly half an hour both Joe and I battled those zipper monsters.

The laughter must have ricocheted all over the apartment and down the hallway. It was a simply wonderful moment. A simple moment. A wonderful moment.

I'm asked, sometimes, if I feel my life has been lessened by my disability.

I am able to make children laugh.

Huge, big, uncontrollable laughs.

So, my answer to that question is - no.