So, first up: The "Steve" who was my friend from church was also the same "Steve" whose mom used to own this house. Apparently he had some outstanding debt - before he moved back here I used to get calls looking for him and they annoyed me but I admit I forgave all that when I found out he had had lymphoma; I figure it's probably medical debt he never paid off.
So anyway. I kept getting calls from "Portfolio Recovery" and I ignored them. I own some stock but I don't really do any "managing" in the sense that they send proxy ballots and I almost never fill them out, because I never know who's up for election to boards of directors (Though, maybe, yeah, I should research that and vote. Maybe after I retire....) So I thought maybe it was that - a few places do call.
Finally, today, while practicing piano the phone rang and I picked it up and said "Hello."
Dead air. I groaned inwardly - was I going to get one of those recordings trying to sell something. I was on the point of hanging up when a woman said "Hello? Hello?"
Warily, I asked, "What is this call concerning?" (this is, I have found, always a good way to get to the meat of things).
"I'm looking for Steve [hislastname]."
I kind of gasped. I said "Steve [hislastname] is not here. He is dead."
the woman paused.
"Do you have a date of death?" (Holy Hell, what ghouls. But I did, I remember it, it was the day of the Science Olympiad.)
"Yes." I said, very bitten off - angry at being interrupted and angry at having the memory of his death shoved in my face again. "It was February 24, 2018." Enunciated very clearly and very slowly.
The woman kind of stammered and apologized and said she was sorry she had called and that she'd update it in their files (But really, can they NOT check up on such things? His obituary was in the paper)
I didn't say anything. Just hung up.
Afterward, I thought: maybe she thought she got a grieving sister (Or, heck, even a grieving wife or daughter. If they didn't know Steve was dead they probably didn't know he was gay). And if she felt bad about that, thinking she got a grieving family member? This is an awful thing for me to say, but: GOOD.
I've also got called for an Elizabeth my-last-name from a sheriff's office; apparently she had some outstanding warrants. I assured the sheriff's representative that if I knew her and where she was, I'd tell them, and he did kind of groan and say "The only people who ever call back are the people we wind up calling in error" but crikey.
I mean, I suppose, bad on me for even picking up, but it makes me hate the phone even more.
1 comment:
we moved into an apt gosh.. 14 yrs ago? and there was a widow upstairs. her husband died 2 months before we moved in. since we got a new number at that address we CONSTANTLY got calls for him. (they assume that he faked his death and got a new number? I had no idea.) Anyway we were constantly saying he had died and that we were neighbors with his widow but no, we didn't know when he died. And I had one evil person say "then how do you really know he's dead?" and If I could have punched them thru the phone line... and I am not a violent person!
Sometimes those companies actually don't have any real reason for calling. they are making things up and they just want to see if someone will give them the money to make them stop calling. I hate those kinds of companies.
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