I hope most people here can remember a story or two about situations like this. It can help even a year later.
Laughter is crucial! I don't want to even imagine life without laughter!
I can appreciate the release your family experienced that day. I imagine it was impossible *not* to laugh at your poor daughter's reaction! lol
Maybe it takes a year to fully appreciate how healing that laughter was. I wrote the following blog entry almost exactly a year after my sister died. (There are only three other posts on that blog; apparently I'm not the blogging type!)
*****
We finally had to laugh. After the four of us--who were preparing to bury the fifth--solemnly chose the flowers, vault, casket, shroud, hymns, prayers, and luncheon details, we finally had to have a release.
We all grew up laughing together, my big family. We laughed much more than we ever fought or cried. Over games of Boggle, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit, we laughed together. Over huge meals of spaghetti we laughed together. Sitting around a campfire on autumn nights, we laughed together.
Sitting in Panera, finishing lunch, it happened naturally. I don't even remember what was said, but someone giggled and it spread. We laughed together and for the first time we could hear the absence of our sister's laugh. We felt the deep stab of our loss, but wouldn't give in to it. We just laughed.
*****
I still think about that moment and remember and smile. It was our very first step forward into our new reality.