Brooke Manternach

Ms. Manternach, you must stop laughing so much

Most people seem to have at least one family member who can make them chuckle, but Brooke Manternach said her entire family makes her laugh.

Manternach said laughter is an important part of her family life.

“We like to laugh at things,” she said.

Manternach said she shares a sense of humor with her father, but if she had to choose one family member who makes her laugh the most, it would be her 13-year-old brother, Jake. In addition to being, “very witty,” Manternach said her brother draws and writes his own comic strip called Doggie Bag.

Manternach said she and her brother have been making each other laugh since Jake was just a little boy.

“I always used to make this face and he would just die laughing,” she said.

When she’s not laughing it up with her brother, father, mother or grandmother, Manternach said reminiscing with friends and playing games never fail to bring a smile to her face.

“I just like to laugh at everything,” she said. “There’s a time to be serious and a time to laugh it up.”

Manternach said while she’s almost always laughing, sometimes it goes just a little too far.

“I actually got in trouble for laughing too much at work,” she said.

— Lee Hermiston

Iowa City Press-Citizen -- March 12, 2009