But more importantly, we knew it would’ve made our dad laugh. “He died as he lived,” we’d say, nodding meaningfully. So we started telling people that he'd been killed by a colon parasite. We didn't want to be cheered up with idiotic aphorisms that put a positive spin on his medical condition. He died of an enlarged heart, and when the news spread in our neighborhood, well-meaning friends and acquaintances would walk up to my brother and me and tell us, “Your dad died as he lived, with a big heart.” It never failed to annoy us.
This is a story about one of my favorite dad jokes.
