Only When I Laugh

A couple of Saturdays ago I was celebrating my fiftieth birthday. Which was in May.

It's a year-long event.

I caught a busy train to London from Birmingham and sat with three ladies I didn't know but who all knew each other.

I read my book and tried not to eavesdrop.

But eavesdrop I did and heard a story which has been making me laugh ever since.

One of the women had been at a friend's house. This friend's father had gallstones, was in a lot of pain and had taken himself upstairs to lie down. 

The friend called an ambulance as she was so worried about her dad and sent her son upstairs to be with him.

The 999 answerer asked her to find out where the pain was.

She called upstairs: "Ask grandad where the pain is?"

"Where's the pain?" he dutifully asked and the grandfather replied that it was all over.

The son shouted down to his mum: "It's all over." 

Which made her yell into the phone: "Oh my god! He's dead."