Last week I wrote about going to K&W cafeteria with my mom. As we walked to our table that day, I saw my cousin, Michael, and his family. After they finished eating, they came over and joined us. While chatting about old times, a lady walked up and asked if she could tell us a joke. We looked surprised, but answered, ěSure.î The joke she told was about a cat and eight mice who went to heaven.
At the time, I thought how courageous she was to walk up to people she didnít know and ask if she could tell a joke. I didnít know the ladyís name, but before telling the joke she told us a little about her history.
In 1986, she had a brain tumor which couldnít be surgically removed, so she made a deal with God. If he would cure her, she would encourage others every day. God healed her, so she decided her way of encouraging others would be through telling jokes. She is known as the joke lady, but her name is Laverne McKinney.
P.H. McKinney is Laverneís husband, and both P.H. and Laverne were kind enough to invite me into their home to tell this story. Sitting together with them at their kitchen table in Granite Quarry, I learned that Laverne was in the hospital for 28 days during this time of illness. P.H. then recalled the details of Laverne going blind due to radiation treatments. Her blindness lasted four months because the swelling pushed on her optic nerve. After radiation, Laverne gradually got better and was even able to drive. She knows a miracle happened in her life and gives God the glory for healing her.
Before Laverne went in for surgery the first time, she told the doctors she didnít want any brain damage because she didnít want to be a burden to her husband. The doctors could not get to the tumor in the first operation, so they tried again five days later. On the second attempt, they knew if they touched the tumor she would have some damage. The tumor was wrapped around one of the main arteries in the brain. They looked at each other, closed her back up, and decided the best treatment would be radiation.
Laverne always kept a good attitude, and even the doctors and nurses thought that was why she had a fast recovery. When people came to visit her in the hospital, she cheered them up, instead of the other way around. P.H. says Laverne has kept her part of the bargain with God all these years.
I asked Laverne where she gets her jokes. She laughed and said often people will stop her when sheís out, usually at K&W, and tell her a joke. In all the years sheís been doing this, only one person didnít want to hear a joke.
Laverne, of course, had a joke for me that day in her kitchen. She said, ěOnce there was a preacher who told the congregation funds were running low. He then said the person who gave the most money that Sunday could pick out three favorite hymns. When the offering was collected, the most money given was by a lady who had placed three $100 bills in the offering plate. The preacher invited the lady to the front of the church and told her to pick out her three favorite hymns. She began pointing and said, ëMy three favorites are him, him, and him.í
ě Even in church, we sometimes misunderstand the intent,î she said.
One thing I do understand is that Laverne is a very strong lady with a strong faith. She made a promise to God long ago and has kept that promise all these years. Just by one act of encouragement on a Friday afternoon in K&W, she blessed my life, and I know she will con-tinue to bless many more. As she says, with laughter in her voice, ěIím going to keep telling jokes until my toes turn up.î
I believe her, too.

Dicy McCullough is a childrenís author who lives in Rowan County. Contact her at 704-278-4377 or her website, dicymcculloughbooks.com.