Barbara

  My mother had a great sense of humor.  She loved Alan King, Monty Python, the early George Carlin, and many more.  I used to read funny books to her in the kitchen, while she was cooking.  I read the newspaper comics to her, when she could no longer read due to the macular degeneration.  She loved to laugh.  She taught me how humor could get you through the day, when things didn't seem so good.  I developed a very dry sense of humor.  Sometimes, people didn't get my humor and thought I was being serious.  Such was the time in 2021 on April Fool's Day.

 I had thought about what I would write on Facebook for that day.  I knew I wanted to concoct a story that wasn't true, but what?  I have been single all of my life.  There are several reasons why I have never married.  Trust issues.  Commitment issues.  Too much fun being single.  Career being more important.  Hurt issues.  I have been in love several times throughout my life, but I just couldn't commit.  So, I thought that would be my prank.

 I looked through Google stock photos and found a woman, who looked to be in her forties.  She wore glasses and was sitting outside on a deck of a house, and she was looking over some papers.  She looked like a schoolteacher.  She was the one.  I named her Barbara after a girl who lived across the street from me back in elementary school.  I liked Barbara, but her family moved away, and I was very sad to say goodbye to her.  So, this fictional "Barbara" taught middle school and lived in Shandon.  I wrote that she and I had met during the pandemic.  Her house was on the bus line, and I would visit her as often as I could.  She invited me to go to her church, and I was looking forward for her to go to my church.  We were in love, and I asked her to marry me.  She said yes.  We had not set a wedding date because of the pandemic.  I went into great detail about "Barbara".

 So, I posted the story on Facebook.  There were all these people congratulating me on my upcoming marriage.  These people thought I was serious.  I was getting comments like "It's never too late" or "She looks like a nice person".  People were very happy for me.  During my story, I had put in little clues as to why it was fake, such as her house was on the bus line, but there isn't a bus that goes through "her" neighborhood.  Of course, most of my Facebook friends don't ride the bus, so I could understand them missing that clue.  Another clue was why didn't "Barbara" drive me home?  She had a car.  There were a handful of friends who realized the story was fake, but the majority did not.

 I let the joke continue all through April Fool's Day.  The congratulatory messages kept coming.  So, I started responding to the messages with "April Fool's".  Some people saw that response, but others didn't.  The next day, I wrote an apology message to my friends that the story was fiction.  There was no "Barbara".  I didn't know who that woman was in the picture.  There was not going to be a wedding.  I apologized to those who I had duped.  My humor got the best of me, and of them.  The moral of my story is to think about the day, when something is posted.  And maybe, I'm just kidding.