Who couldn't stop laughing?

Having five sisters can be challenging at times. Trying to hide your stuff so that it is there when you need it, or sharing a bathroom. We always had lots of fights about numerous things over the years. Most of those things I can hardly remember.

Five sisters can also be lots of fun. I can remember times when my sisters and I would laugh so hard. Always at night, of course. My mom would put us to bed and turn off our lights. Then when her footsteps would fade we would share secrets and talk about things. Within minutes we would be in stitches. Holding our aching stomachs, and still trying to remain quiet, without success. Within minutes my mom would yell down the hall. "That's enough in there! Go to sleep!" We could not stop though, and her yelling just made us laugh harder.

Sometimes we could hold it down long enough for mom to go back to whatever she was doing. However, in ten minutes time we would be howling with laughter again. Then mom would come pounding down the hall, throw open the door, and demand to know what was so funny that we could not sleep. We could never stop laughing long enough to tell her, and we would just lay in our beds and try to stop laughing, because she was so mad, and really things should not have been humorous any longer. We were too close to being punished for anything to still be funny, but we could not stop laughing.

Looking back on these memories now, I smile. I now realize that there were times when it was all my mom could do not to join us in our laughter. We should have been in bed, and it was her job as our mom to make certain we got our rest for school the next day. I wonder how long we would have continued to laugh if mom had not done her job and joined us in our laughter?

I can not remember all the things we laughed over, or what exactly made us go into those fits of giggles. The memories of laughing with each other we hold close to our hearts now, and those precious moments will remain in our hearts forever. A time when the fighting stopped and we were friends, confidants, sisters.