Lori

I do have a crazy holiday story. This happened in Cincinnati as well in 2008, 2009. Some history on me. I had lost my mom about two years prior to that. very young. She was 52. And I was going through a lot grieving, probably self medicating with food and alcohol, just let myself go a little bit. So I decided to join a gym. And just kind of entertainment dated me a little bit.

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So I chose a place I won't name any names, but it's known primarily for focusing on being for women only. They were primarily targeted to older crowd. I mean, I'm 30 at this point. Most of the women who were going to this gym were 20 to 30 years older than me. It was a good start for me to get back into working out.

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I also got to talk to people who were my mom's age, have some maternal healing there, and actually just talk to other women who had lost their mother. I was the only one at that time in my friend group because I was so young and she was so young. They really didn't have anyone to talk.

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relate to, you know, mess with different ladies and we start hanging out outside the gym, having dinner, going for a drink, going art fairs, craft fairs.

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Yes, it was very good. It was what I needed at that point. And realizing that everybody is going through different things and grief doesn't have a timeline. Right. One of the ladies was having a Christmas party. We were doing a white elephant gift exchange. They specifically said, bring something that's already in your house. So that you're not spending any money on anything.

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So a bunch of us go to the party and we start this gift exchange. With this particular format, you didn't open the gift until everybody had picked and all the gifts were stolen. So really, people were doing it based on the shape and the size of the bag or the packaging.

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Yeah. If it was heavy, if you could shake it and make noise. So there was probably 20 of us or so. We get through. Everybody gets their final gifts. And then we're going around the room. opening the gifts. They're getting Christmas decorations. They're getting ornaments. They're getting wreaths. They're getting candy. They're getting, you know, just all kinds of different items.

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Yeah, or things that people have re-gifted. They may have gotten it for Christmas last year. Sure, sure. Then I pull out this item that looks and feels like it's a vase.

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It's got a cover on the top with a cover, almost like a paper that's been taped on the top of it.

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I pull it out. I'm looking at it. I'm trying to figure out what it is. And I hear a voice coming from the back. One of the older ladies said, well, I was told to bring something that I already had. And this is my husband. Well, it's my husband's ashes. And he wanted me to spread them in a local park. And I just can't bear to do it alone. I couldn't bear to do it at all.

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So I thought that if I came here.

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Oh, you didn't.

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You know, I thought that if I gave it to someone that they could help me or they could then take the ashes and dispose of them the way that she wanted them to. And I mean, she was very emotional saying this. And I was still sort of in a grief state.

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Yeah. The whole room was quiet. Like nobody was saying anything at this point. you know, I was like, okay, Ruby, I'll help you with this. So then kind of just sat there and I wasn't the last one to open. So there was still some other gifts that people needed to open and everyone's done opening the gifts and we're mingling around again. I was 30.

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So everyone at that point felt so much older than me. Yeah.

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I feel like she was at least in her seventies. I go over, I give her a big hug and I said, Ruby, I'm going to help you with this. We're going to do this. She may have at some point told me what her late husband's name was. I don't remember that. But she's like, we'll do this for him. And we'll make sure his wishes are all met.

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We're not facing each other. We're hugging. So she's on my shoulder. And I hear her. And I think that she's crying. And she's actually laughing. Uh-oh.

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He says, oh, honey, that's not my husband. What? Those ashes are from my outdoor fire pit. And I just thought that this would just make such a funny gift exchange and a fun story to tell.

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a holiday prank oh wow about their dead husband but that's like really sick she should write for a really dark comedy sketch yeah that's next level crazy it was not what i expected at all you don't expect to get a base of someone's ashes and then come to find out that it's not a face yeah this is a real roller coaster for you

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Yes. There was a lot of relief. Grief is hard. So I was just trying to let people deal with things the way they could. Yeah. But it was just a very odd situation. And she did end up giving me a candle that she had bought.

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And I think she was known to be a prankster. I just didn't know her that well at this point, but probably about Ten years after that, she herself did pass and a few of us from that gym did go to the funeral. And we heard a lot of other stories of the different pranks and just funny things that She just tried to do to live life and make people laugh and smile, even if it was the dark humor. Wow.