This is what I read at Amy's memorial:

Life is messy, knotty.  Each of us is made up of braided strands of good and evil, compassion and indifference.

I believe that laughter can help sort our messes, help loosen our knots.

Amy and I didn’t, as adults, get to spend as much time together as we would have liked; but when we did get together, we laughed!

Often at family gatherings when our Mom would start to laugh, Amy and I would catch one another’s eye, nod and—sometimes in unison, sometimes in a raggedy asthmatic harmony—begin to draw deep raspy breaths.  Something like this… uhhhh!!!

This would cause Mom to laugh uncontrollably.  She’d laugh until she cried, she’d laugh until it hurt.  Amy and I were co-conspirators in our Mother’s laughter.  It was a beautiful, cathartic thing and one of my favorite family memories.

I’ve cried a lot over the last several weeks.  I’m probably not done crying, but I’m not done laughing either. 

I hope all of you—family and friends—will find it in your hearts to remember Amy with a smile & perhaps a rollicking belly laugh as you reflect on a special moment you had with her.

I want to conclude by saying: uhhhh!