Coining a Word

You never know when something is going to be so funny that you laugh until tears run down your face. We’d had 24 hours to get used to having grandson Nathaniel here for winter break. One of the first things I did was take his picture with the birthday balloon John bought him. His birthday was the week before, but we will celebrate with him later.

The day began as any ordinary Sunday. We went to church in Asheville, had a brief discussion about where to eat lunch, and settled in our booth at Fatz. Conversation never lagged. We must have talked about people who did strange things, but that was erased from my memory by what followed.

In an ordinary sentence, Nathaniel made a statement with a straight face, fully expecting us to continue talking. John and I looked at each other with disbelief. Had we really heard what we thought we had?

“Say that again, Nathaniel.”

He repeated, “We all have our quirbels.”

We burst out laughing and couldn’t stop repeating the word in every other sentence. He took it with grace. It seems things come out of his mouth that people have never heard before, and his classmates accept them. They even compliment him on his huge vocabulary. His newly coined words are certainly out of their range.

We decided the new word was a combo of quirks and foibles. Just remember, if you notice someone doing an unusual thing today, we all have our quirbels.