Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Voice From the Grave

Eric Zorn says:

Every so often, when someone dies, there's an awkward few days or even weeks when the deceased person's voice still greets callers who go into voice mail or get the answering machine.

People tell me that erasing that outgoing message can be tough, but everyone knows it's necessary.
After my mother died last year, my sister from California was staying at my mom’s condo while s in town for the funeral and aftermath. I called over there while she was still there and got my mother’s answering machine with her greeting still on it. I hadn’t thought ahead to prepare myself for that. It was kind of a shock.

On a more macabre note, about that same time we were going through mom’s things and telemarketers were still calling at her place. On one occasion, I answered one of those calls and actually got a bit of a rush being able to tell them she was dead. Few things stop the show quicker for a telemarketer than finding out their lead is deceased. I felt guilty about it immediately after, but I really think my mother would have gotten a kick out of it.

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