Happy, Hap-hap-happy, Happy Talk!

A few years ago, our family had a very worrying few months when dear old Daddio had to have a triple bypass heart operation. Even so, he still managed to raise a giggle in us, the day following his surgery.......................

Daddio is a very proud man, and until that time us children had never before seen him without his shirt, without a close shave or without his teeth.

All of this added to the trauma of seeing him in the Intensive Care Unit with all the drips, monitoring equipment, and oxygen mask that accompany such procedures.

Thankfully, Dad was completely unaware of all of this - one of the drips contained morphine. Anyone who has experience of morphine will know that some patients have nightmares, while for others it can be a happy 'trip'.

Daddio was lucky and had not just a happy experience, but a hilarious one!

His bed was in a side ward, with windows all around it looking out, making it easy for the staff to keep an eye on him.

We were gathered outside it, taking in turns to go in and see him, one at a time.

When I saw him, I tried not to let him perceive my fear. I leant over the bed and gave him a kiss.

"What are you laughing at?" He wrongly assumed I was shaking with laughter.

"I'm not laughing," I told him.

"Were you joining in with that lot?" he pointed over to the far corner of the main ward.

"Them! Them nurses over there hiding behind that big Notice Board."

"They've been behind there all day, smoking and giggling! They keep making me laugh and it pulls on my stitches"

THERE WAS NOBODY THERE!

I thought it best to humour him, "I'll ask them to be quiet on my way out, shall I?"

"No, they're obviously happy in their work," he said.

Over the next 20 minutes or so, we all went in and out. The whole time he was laughing.

We all went back in to quickly to say cheerio. He was still laughing, and Mumsie asked,

"For God's sake! What ARE you laughing at?"

"The telly. I've not seen this episode of Dad's Army before and it's a really good one." He was pointing over at the wall.

There was no telly on the wall......................

but there was..............................

one of these!.............................

Theme of the "Twilight Zone" playing gently in the background........

The spooky part was, a few weeks later during Dad's recovery at home, there was a previously lost episode of Dad's Army shown on the BBC and Daddio swears it was the one he'd "seen" in hospital that day!