I got a call yesterday. One I was expecting really. An elderly relation had just passed away.
She reared a large family and I have always been close to them, but closer to one in particular. I let things settle for an hour after his brother had broken the news to me then phoned him.
- Howya. Ya all right? Larry called me with the news.
- I’m grand. Why? What news?
[Panic! What do I do now? What do I say? Two big size nines straight into my gob. Think quick, Primal]
- Hello! Hello! Can you hear me? … You’re cracking up on me. … This phone’s shite … If ya can hear me I’m going to move down the road … see can I get a signal … call you back … five minutes.
I hung up. Shaking. What happened there? I began to doubt myself. Did I get Larry’s message wrong? Was the woman still alive and just because I was expecting to get a particular phone call that’s what I heard?
No I couldn’t have gotten it wrong. Larry never rings me. Why else would he ring me now? No, I did hear right.
I was refusing to believe the glaringly obvious. In such a big family someone always gets left out. Larry probably assumed Máire rang Pat. Máire probably assumed Fran had.
But what was I to do now? Do I call Larry back? Do I call Pat and tell him he should phone home? I decided to let it go. No matter who I phoned it would spark a row. I just had to hope Pat would put two and two together. He did. And while he guessed the news, at least he didn’t officially hear it from me.
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Crikey. I’m sorry for your loss. I think you did the right thing though. They’ll soon sort it out amongst themselves.
The lady across the road from us was very ill for many years. She’d been expected to die for the longest time and one day all the curtains in the house remained drawn all day. In Lewis this usually means death and word spread quickly. The next day in the mail she got to see sympathy cards for her own death. The phone was ringing off the hook with condolences for her husband, who had to explain she wasn’t in fact, um, dead, as erm such. Apparently her husband had been sick in bed all that day and hadn’t been up to open the curtains. Now everybody waits for the death notice to go up in the town before it costs them the price of a card and a red face.
Ouch… I would have done the same thing. Thank the good lord Voda for the invention of mobiles with crappy coverage…
Sorry for your loss too.
Quick thinking, Primal. Phew.
My condolences.
First, my condolences.
Secondly, I want to know what on Earth you did. A flurry of phone calls I suspect. Poor ducks, that’s a horrible thing to happen.
Sam - We had something similar a few years back: The mother of the local publican was poorly and he was at the end of his tether with stress so he broke out and had a few drinks. The next day he was in was in the horrors and couldn’t get up to open the bar. When we seen the place closed we assumed the good lady had passed on and word spread quickly. Cards etc. were sent. A fortnight later she came out of hospital, back behind the counter and muggins here had to be awkward - I asked her for my card back. Fucked if I’m paying for one again when you really do die. She gave it to me.
Caro - Voda is the answer to many prayers indeed. As Garth Brooks never sang, some of the gods’ greatest gifts, are unanswered calls.
Medbh - Geeze, yeah, I was lucky. I’m not the quickest thinker normally.
FMC - I did absolutely nothing. I had a feeling in my water that Pat’d cop on something was wrong and he did. He called home.
We met up at the do and he didn’t say anything specific - just thanks for ringing the other day, nodded knowingly and we both left it at that. The rest of the family are none the wiser.
sorry about the news but do the usual Irish think and say nothing and pretend nothing is wrong.