Joe is married to his wonderful wife Betty for 50 years, when suddenly he passes away.

St. Peter meets him at the pearly gates and says, “You can get in provided you can spell one word correctly.”

“What’s the word?” asked Joe

“Spell Love,” said St. Peter.

“L-U-V,” said Joe.

“Well, okay, I guess we can accept that,” said St. Peter. “Come on in.”

A few years later Betty dies. And at the very time she appears at the pearly gates, her husband Joe was filling in for St. Peter.

“Joe! It’s me Betty!,” said Betty, eager to get into Heaven and rejoin her long lost husband.

Oh no, thought Joe. How am I going to explain that I’ve met this wonderful, gorgeous, woman in Heaven and we get along just beautifully.

“Betty, I can let you in, but only if you can spell one word correctly,” Joe said. “There can be no mistakes whatsoever, or you’re forever banned from Heaven. Those are the rules.”

“What’s the word Joe?” Betty asked sweetly.

“Onomatopoeia,” Joe said.

One of my favorite memoir authors died Sunday at age 78. Frank McCourt recounted his impoverished Irish boyhood growing up in the slums of Limerick with his Pulitzer Prize-winning, “Angela’s Ashes,” a #1 New York Times bestseller.

Here’s an example of McCourt’s captivating writing style:

…”Mam is sitting on a chair at the head of the bed. She’s stroking Eugene’s hair and face and hands. She tells him that of all the children in the world he was the sweetest and the most delicate and loving. She tells him ’tis a terrible thing to lose him but isn’t he in heaven now with his brother and his sister and isn’t that a comfort to us, knowing Oliver is no longer lonesome for his twin. Still she puts her head down next to Eugene and cries so hard all the women in the room cry with her. She cries till Pa Keating tells her we have to go before the darkness falls, that we can’t be in graveyards in the dark…”

McCourt also wrote “Tis,” and “Teacher Man.” I would recommend all three books. Excellent non-fiction. You won’t be disappointed.