Teasing

For our ward temple night Danny and I went up with Dan and Melinda Carruth. It was a very crowded session, and a very old lady in a wheelchair was squeezed in next to me by the wall. She must have been well into her 80's, and hunched over pretty good in her wheelchair. With rouge on her cheeks and with a hairpiece of dark gray on her white head, she looked ready to be "out and about." I kept my eye on her, but she didn't need much assistance from me.
When we went into the Celestial Room, we and the Carruths were standing around enjoying the wonderful feeling of being there together when this same little old lady wheeled up to us. She looked at Melinda and said, pointing to her husband, "That your husband?" Melinda smiled and nodded yes. She lifted her gnarled finger and tapped her wrinkled old cheek and said, "You mind if he gives me one right here?" Melinda chuckled and said, "No, go ahead, Dan." Poor Dan, put on the spot, leaned in and gave her a respectful tiny little peck on the cheek.
"No!" She says, "Not that! I want him to rub those whiskers on my face!" We all had to check ourselves from laughing out loud. She knew exactly what she wanted, and it was to have his whiskers scruffing her face. Poor guy; he obliged and we just enjoyed his embarrassment and her happiness.
"Oh, she says, it has been such a very long time!" I was smiling pretty big at this scene, and she turns to me and says, "When you're as old as me you can get away with all this stuff! It's great! You're going to love it! Forgive me, she says, I've been up since 4 o'clock this morning to be here early, and I'm a little tired tonight!"
She wheeled away and left us standing there giggling. After we composed ourselves and went to change into our street clothes I saw her one more time. She was asking her friend, "So, we still going for teriyaki?"
I've thought a lot about her, and how much we are going to miss things we might take for granted. I wondered if in 1920 she was a little girl on her daddy's lap when he rubbed his whiskers in her neck. Of if her husband in 1940 used to tickle her with his beard. Someone somewhere teased her with whiskers! I thought of all the little loving teasings we do with each other, and how much kids giggle and come back for more of it. I think they all send the message "You are important to me, and I love you."
So in case you're wondering what the pictures have to do with my post, they are moments of teasing and playing, of which these kids cannot get enough. Don't let another twenty four hours go by without giving somebody a dose of playful attention.