1960

FRAN MELMED

I don’t know where this photo was taken, or by whom, but this is my mom, Jill, cracking up, boldly and beautifully. Her laugh was recognizable—and loud! You could hear her howls ring down halls and through elevator shafts (not unlike her daughter’s). She was quick to roar with glee about something funny she’d said or snicker over something witless a politician had done. Many years after this photo was taken, she laughed merrily with my sister and me as we sat around the kitchen table, where she held a new head-of-the-household position. Later, she giggled with joy when hearing of something a grandchild accomplished. And later still, with a combination of frailty and fate, she dissolved into laughter as she gamely faced her lung cancer prognosis and treatment. Her ability to find the funny in all of life’s pains and detours is only one of many lessons I draw from, especially on days when I feel her loss most acutely.