The Night Eddie Murphy Saved My Life

As September 11th approaches TV networks have broken out their footage of the screams, explosions, and dust covered phantoms wandering a crippled Downtown.

The facts of that dark day in September are well known and repeated over and over again. What has rarely written about publicly are the stories of the families that somehow managed to cope with the aftermath of the atrocity and engaged in the torturous waiting game to receive word about their missing loved ones. Although many never received word at all, for my family the process lasted 19 agonizing days. This is a glimpse into that process and some of the unlikely ways we managed to cope with it.

If there is any way to call my family blessed in the context of such tragedy, it was that we were fortunate to have an unbelievable support system. In the hours after the towers fell, people began showing up at our home and with the exception of to shower and (sometimes) sleep, didn’t leave for a month or longer. This group included family members, neighbors, and long time family friends. Most importantly for this story, this group included a rotating cast of the school friends of my sisters and I.

These friends of ours became our constant companions. In the first weeks many of them completely ditched school and became permanent residents of our couches and bedroom floors. We talked together, sat silent together, ate together, hoped together, and certainly cried together. They came to support us but also because many of them wanted to honor their own relationship with my Mom and Dad.

One day, sometime within the first week (the actual timeline remains a blur), when we were continuing the routine of small talking and trying in vain to believe the whole thing wasn’t happening, one of these friends JP stood up and announced,

“We can’t do this anymore…I’ll be back in a bit,”

A couple hours later he returned carrying a video tape, sporting a shit eating grin and declared

“We are watching this tonight…all of us”

After that evening’s buffet style meal, we gathered in my room and within a minute or two what seemed like 50 but was probably closer to 15 of us were crammed into said room. JP, who had become unofficial MC for the viewing, pushed in the tape. Just before it disappeared into the VCR I read the word “Delirious” written in black Sharpie on the tape label.

It was about then that something amazing happened. From the moment the young Eddie Murphy strode onto the stage wearing that red orange jumpsuit that looked like you could plug it into a wall socket we did something we weren’t sure was possible anymore; we laughed……hard.

For the next hour plus we listened to the comic’s musings on the sexual habits of Mr. T and Ralph Cramden, ice cream, and family BBO’s with Bigfoot in complete hysterics.

The most profound moment for me came when I caught my youngest sister Cody out of the corner of my eye. She was crying but not in the way we had become all too familiar with. She was nearly curled up into a ball holding her sides and crying from laughter. It was then that I realized somewhere in my brain that we were going to make it. Our emotion was just as intense but we had found a way to transfer it into another form and achieve a different yet equally important release.

Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious” remains uproariously funny regardless of where or how you saw it for the 1st time but for those of us who were in the room that night it remains something different. I have seen said special at least a dozen times since then but whenever I watch it with someone from that room there is a look and nod exchanged almost as to say “we’re still here,”

I swear that I have never laughed longer and harder than I did that night. It was that rediscovery of the ability to laugh and to do so with dear friends that allows me to write this with a broad smile on my face nearly 9 years later. Most of the friends who were part of this story and the countless others from the period remain close. Even among those I have grown apart from the bond of having “been there” together never wanes. It is because of these people, and Eddie Murphy, that I am still here. Whatever life throws at you, don’t ever forget how to laugh. It might just save your life