Papa and the Missing Parts

Hello folks, let’s chat…I was having coffee with Mama and Papa yesterday when Mama announced, “I guess you know Uncle Rod found your daddy’s teeth?”  I didn’t know Papa had lost his teeth, and it sounded strange to hear Uncle Rod had found them but in my family you learn to jump in the story and go where it takes you.

To be clear, all of Papa’s teeth weren’t missing, just that partial plate he wears on the bottom. They never have fit right. Papa has a habit of taking them out every chance he gets. He also takes off his right boot whenever he sits down. He had a surgery on the nerve in his big toe that was has proven as unsuccessful as that partial. Some people would make a joke here and say that Papa isn’t all there even when it looks like he is, but I was raised better.

“So, where were they?” I asked Mama.

“Where was what?”

“Papa’s teeth.”

“In his truck, Shellie—  right where he left ‘em.”

Mama said the strange thing was that she and Papa had both checked that truck, along with the Golden Girls, (that would be Aunt Judy and Aunt Marleta.) Even neighbor Paula had joined the hunt. It took Uncle Rod returning from his road trip to make the discovery. I told Papa the idea of the whole family looking for his teeth struck me as funny. I could tell it tickled him, too. Papa said he had just about decided that Lady was responsible, said she was grinning awfully strange. Lady, the Holy Ghost dog, looked up about that time and turned her head sideways as if to say, “I ain’t wearing your teeth. I got my own canines.”

And that reminded me, in the way these things do, of another good teeth story I had almost forgotten to share with y’all. We’ll have to save it for next week, though. We’re out of time here. Instead, I’ll leave you with a bad pun. Clearly, when it comes to dental emergencies, there’s nothing like a little family bonding.

Hugs,
Shellie

P.S. Is it possible to look at suffering without looking away?