Growing old can be eye-opening and even a little scary at times. So every once in a while you need to be able to step back, take it all in stride, and have a little laugh at your own expense! Because if you can’t laugh at yourself, then how can you laugh at anybody else? 😀
The Home Instead Senior Care facility held a convention back in 2009 in which the founders asked a friend of theirs, Mary Maxwell, to give the invocation and opening prayer. Little did the audience of fellow seniors and caretakers know that this little old lady could have made it as a professional comedian! The prayer starts off as normal as can be, but then a hilarious turn.
“As long as I have the microphone…”
Mary’s deadpan delivery and poise up on the stage took everyone by surprise and made it all the more funny! She starts it off by telling a little about herself and then goes into the two things people most want to know about you but are too polite to ask—Age and weight!
Mary continues on to say seniors are well aware that they are sometimes not very likable nor lovable. Please be patient and remember why we are the way we are… “You don’t get a chance to practice. This is the first time I’ve ever been old. And it just sort of crept up on me!”
The audience is loving the straightforward, monotone wisecracks and can’t hold back the laughs! My favorite part has to be about how hard it is for old people to exercise. “I did try to jog once, but it makes the wine just jump right out of your glass!” Isn’t that the truth? 😀
Mary Maxwell ends her speech with a poem she once found in a local retirement home newsletter that brings the mood in the room back to a more serious and heartfelt vibe. But of course she can’t walk off the stage without one more joke to conclude the evening… Too funny!
Make sure to listen to the entire prayer in the video below:
