There are a few clues to recognising when I’ve perhaps spent too much time away from social interaction. The first is the feeling of genuine excitement when I realise I’ve managed to un-knowingly coincide cooking dinner with the beginning of The Archers. The second is just how much the back page of the local “Forest Edge News” makes me laugh. It lands in my postbox just once a month and is “The Newsletter Of The Forest Edge Benefice”. As well as all the news and goings on from the local parishes, the back page never fails to deliver, just below the crossword. Sometimes it’s a short joke with accompanying illustration and sometimes it’s a long and, quite often, hilarious story. This month was particularly good and has made me laugh so many times since – often whilst listening to The Archers – that I thought it good enough to share.

So here goes, I shall copy it word for word as it appears. And I apologise if you’ve heard it a million times before…

“Never Make This Email Mistake” from The Forest Edge News, June 2013

A Minneapolis couple decided to travel to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. The planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier.

Because of work commitments, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day.

The husband checked in to the hotel. There was a computer in his room. He decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address and without realising his error, he sent the email.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. He had been a Baptist minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from family and friends.

After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted. The widow’s son rushed in to the room and found his mother on the floor passed out. He looked at the computer which read :

To : My Loving Wife