Isn’t it funny when you make a joke and then people actually act like you’re serious?

Had to pop by a school in the west end where I had some business left over and I had the pleasure of speaking to the secretary and principal and librarian.

I am SO fortunate to meet such nice people!

And far from just being an office administrator, many times the school secretaries I’ve met are more like Office managers and are integral cogs in the running of the school, all the way from applying bandages and ice packs to signing cheques and attending presentations because they’re curious too!

This office administrator had two grown boys but the way she talked about literature made me glow inside!

She said books like The Giving Tree lasted forever, and she asked to take a look at Big Red Lollipop. And just the way she leafed through the pages…I could tell she loved books as much as I do.

She had read about me in the New York Times and the Toronto Star, she had read about my book Big Red Lollipop and she said how she was sad that she hadn’t been able to attend my session.

Long story short, we finished up the business and as I was getting ready to leave she said she might just buy the copy of Big Red Lollipop even though her boys were in their teens.

I ended up signing it for her son ‘Matthew’ because ‘Robert’ always gets everything.

And then we were talking about the honour I’d received and I made a joke of it, saying that no matter how big I got, I’d never forget the ‘little people’.

And the principal, the librarian and the secretary, all three of them were nodding, “Yes! Please remember us!”

And I thought “Good grief! They thought I was being serious!”

What I should have done was tell them right out that I was joking!

But I was too taken aback.

Don’t you just wish your life could have a ‘rewind’ button, or a ‘pause’ so that you could think of the best way to handle a situation?

I do.

I always think of what I should have said afterwards.

It was a special moment.

And if I do get rich and famous one day, I think I will think back to that moment and insha Allah, it will help keep my head from floating away on me!