Some families play scrabble.

Some families are less interested in written words and so choose to play Chinese whispers instead.

***

DB came home from work really upset the other day. Apparently his father had told him that his (DB’s) mother had said his uncle (C) was in hospital and that his aunt (H) didn’t want to talk about it to anyone, and not to phone for a week or so.

[Background history: DB’s uncle had cancer a couple of years ago, which is now cured, or at least in remission]

We’d spoken to H and C a couple of days earlier and they’d both been fine. C had been tested and was doing well, no sign of anything wrong. They’d sounded happy and life was good.

Except if DB said that his dad said that his mum said that his aunt said that his uncle was in hospital then life can’t be good anymore.

lt must mean something serious like a car crash – or more likely in his case, a bike crash. Or a stroke/heart attack/other terrible unexpected thing. Or the doctors had reread the test results and changed their minds..

Panic was inevitable.

After DB’d asked me if I thought C’d be ok for the 57th time, and I’d had to prevent him booking the first flights out to see them a couple of times, I wrote  H an email.

Turns out H and C had just got back from a routine checkup (for H) but not yet eaten when DB’s mother phoned. Also, they’d agreed to meet C’s cousin at a certain time which meant they were in a rush to eat and get to the meeting point on time – and non-urgent phone calls weren’t at the top of the priority list. The cousin was due to stay for a week, so they would have time to phone once she’d gone home.

Panic over.

***

According to wikihow:
“The game goes on until the last person says whatever they heard aloud and the first person reveals the real message. Compare them and have a great laugh!”

In this case, the great laugh was more like a great sigh of relief.

***

On balance, and although I’m generally not a good player of any family games, I think I prefer scrabble…