Have you ever heard the phrase “Laughter is the best medicine?” At Glenmoor - the life care community at the World Golf Village - the residents believe it.
Kathleen von Koschembahr, a sales agent with Davidson Realty Inc.. was so inspired by her friend and World Golf Village resident - Della Myers, a 10-year cancer survivor - that she wanted to honor her friend’s triumph over the disease. Davidson Realty markets The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village.
Von Koschembahr believes in the power of laughter to improve life and health. With that in mind, she set about establishing a “laughter library” in her friend’s honor and invited friends and colleagues at Davidson Realty to donate humorous books, videos or music.
Today, The Della Myers Laughter Library is part of Glenmoor’s Health Center.
Lorraine Laver, activities coordinator for the Health Center, plans to offer special laughter days and activities at least once a week that all residents can enjoy. Some of the videos include the shows of Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Jack Benny as well as more recent films such as “As Good As It Gets.”
A growing body of research argues that laughter and positive emotions can benefit people’s health and wellbeing. One of the featured books in the Della Myers Laughter Library is Norman Cousins’ groundbreaking “Anatomy of an Illness,” which details Cousins’ self-healing efforts to overcome a debilitating connective tissue disease. As part of his self-therapies, Cousins watched Marx Brothers movies and read humorous stories to help him deal with pain and sleep issues.
Myers, who plans to be a continued ambassador for the project, says, “There is some medical evidence that it works and I want to keep growing it. It’s inexpensive and even if it’s not effective, how could it hurt to have some laughter?”