I have already begun the huge job of dealing with my aunt's estate. It will be a ton of work for a few months and then it will be done. I have to wait to get into the thick of the financial stuff, but for now I have been going through papers, stopping the newspaper, forwarding the mail, turning off the phone and the cable, etc. I explain the situation, give them my name and address for final bills etc. Each thing is a little step forward. Done, check! I don't have to think about them anymore.
Until last night.
I received this call from comcast, her cable TV provider.
C: this is comcast, I would like to speak to Alice please
Me: pausing "she's not here". ( that made me sad)
C ( a bit impatiently) Can I at least leave a message for her.
Me: well, you're going to have to , she passed away 2 weeks ago.
She was flummoxed for a minute but went right into her pitch. I stopped her and said, if you want her to buy anything shes not interested. (still trying to keep it light)
She said in a very matter of fact way (obviously reading from something , "well, I have information that she reduced or canceled her serviced and did not return the box or the remote."
dramatic pause by me....Well...see... she died. And I told the representative that yesterday when I canceled the service.
C -( Matter of factly), Ok. when can you return the box.
M - You are going to have to come and get it. The comcast guy is in her building every single day and I can leave it with the doorman.
C. Please hold.
M holding {and now fuming} ...
after a while.. C . "we can send you a box/kit and you can UPS it back to us."
Me (digging in) no. you are going to have to come and get it. She lived in a hig rise, comcast is in there every day.
I will have to transfer you to customer care. Please be aware this call may be recorded for quality purposes
M: too late for that. But go ahead and transfer me
C:Ok, first, What is your name...
Sally McDonald
C : VALLEY?
No, Sally.
C. NALLY?
Me: {spelling} S A L L Y.
Oh Sally, sweetie, I'm sorry. {"sweetie?".... really?... I didn't say a word}
can you hold while I transfer you to customer care.....
yes.
One more thing -- ok and her address was assisted living place?
Me (exasperated} NO! it was downtowh highrise apartment. She transferred the service back to her home when she returned. I specifically discussed this with the guy yesterday because i wanted to make sure there was no confusion. Service was fine, box is fine, remote is fine, It worked at the new address. I'm happy to give them back to you, but I want you to come and get them.
Please hold.
L O N G H O L D T I M E (lilke 10 minutes)
thank for waiting sally, we appreciate your patience, i'm going to put you back on hold.
fine - but I don't have any of her paperwork here, it's all at her house.
Please hold
a n o t h e r l o n g w a i t.
I'm sorry ma'am I can't reach anyone in customer service in your area as the offices are closed (ya think> it's 8:45 PM)
I can give you an 800 number and you can call t....
ME: No. If they want it they can call me. This has been offensive from start to finish.
C L I C K.
Valley/Nally/Sally: POURS LARGE GLASS OF WINE and briefly wonders if her aunt is making prank calls from Heaven. .
Showing posts with label A.M.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.M.. Show all posts
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Just passing through
Just want to check in to say you won't be seeing any new posts until next week. My aunt's sudden passing means 50 million things have to be done in the next few days. I have about 48 million done already.
Of course all of this happens when Maggie is out of school. I said I was looking for different kinds of outings to keep her entertained, but meeting the medical examiner, taking trips to make arrangements at the cemetery and gathering photos for a memory board were not on my "to do" list. My mother said Maggie can write the best "what I did on my summer vacation" essay when school starts in a few weeks.
In the flurry of activity, I have had the opportunity to speak to numerous cousins, my uncle and all of my siblings and several of their kids. We have laughed over many things as memories of my aunt are shared. I am reminded, once again, how very lucky I am to be part of this amazing family.
Of course all of this happens when Maggie is out of school. I said I was looking for different kinds of outings to keep her entertained, but meeting the medical examiner, taking trips to make arrangements at the cemetery and gathering photos for a memory board were not on my "to do" list. My mother said Maggie can write the best "what I did on my summer vacation" essay when school starts in a few weeks.
In the flurry of activity, I have had the opportunity to speak to numerous cousins, my uncle and all of my siblings and several of their kids. We have laughed over many things as memories of my aunt are shared. I am reminded, once again, how very lucky I am to be part of this amazing family.
Monday, August 3, 2009
A San Francisco Original
I have written several times about my aunt Alice Marie, or A.M., as she is known. I’ve written about how she fell and had to go into the hospital, about how she had to go into assisted living, about how she wanted to go home, about moving her home and just last week about shopping with her and Maggie at Trader Joe’s. However, I never really wrote about her. And now she is gone.
A.M passed away at home just one month after leaving assisted living. She was an independent woman from the start, so it is fitting that she would be back on her own and living independently when she passed. She was, in many ways, a woman ahead of her time. She had a career, never married or had kids, and lived life on her own terms.
Her several siblings married and produced 32 children between them. I had five aunts, but AM was the aunt who was different from the rest. She drove a Volkswagen bug when the rest of us had station wagons. Forty years ago, she moved downtown, which was wild, and sold her car because she didn’t need one. That was unheard of. She and her friend Shirley used to rent cars when they wanted to go somewhere. We thought that was exotic.
My sister Ellen reminded me that when she came to visit there was always a bag filled with goodies, food treats that were either things we generally did not have in our house or, more likely, things that did not last more than five minutes in our house. Christmas meant a gift from A.M. that was always wrapped in the same wrapping paper. For years. All those nieces and nephews received gifts always wrapped in the same paper. (I always wondered how big that roll was.) You knew immediately which gift was from A.M. The gifts themselves were always something unique. Not extravagant, but thoughtful; and because it came from A.M., we generally thought it was exotic, too.
A.M had a well-developed sense of humor and strong opinions. She intertwined the two freely, which could be sidesplitting and exasperating at the same time. The next generation, my kids and their cousins etc, found her especially hilarious because she would say things that other people in their grandparent's generation would never say. Moreover, she would say them in a very colorful way. That was part of the exasperation for my generation, because many of us had become the staid middle agers that she never was.
A.M. was proud of her strong family ties, and proud of her independence, too. She was generous with her love and she would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. She asked only for love in return. She was much loved and will be greatly missed.
St. Peter will have his hands full dealing with her at the pearly gates.
A.M passed away at home just one month after leaving assisted living. She was an independent woman from the start, so it is fitting that she would be back on her own and living independently when she passed. She was, in many ways, a woman ahead of her time. She had a career, never married or had kids, and lived life on her own terms.
Her several siblings married and produced 32 children between them. I had five aunts, but AM was the aunt who was different from the rest. She drove a Volkswagen bug when the rest of us had station wagons. Forty years ago, she moved downtown, which was wild, and sold her car because she didn’t need one. That was unheard of. She and her friend Shirley used to rent cars when they wanted to go somewhere. We thought that was exotic.
My sister Ellen reminded me that when she came to visit there was always a bag filled with goodies, food treats that were either things we generally did not have in our house or, more likely, things that did not last more than five minutes in our house. Christmas meant a gift from A.M. that was always wrapped in the same wrapping paper. For years. All those nieces and nephews received gifts always wrapped in the same paper. (I always wondered how big that roll was.) You knew immediately which gift was from A.M. The gifts themselves were always something unique. Not extravagant, but thoughtful; and because it came from A.M., we generally thought it was exotic, too.
A.M had a well-developed sense of humor and strong opinions. She intertwined the two freely, which could be sidesplitting and exasperating at the same time. The next generation, my kids and their cousins etc, found her especially hilarious because she would say things that other people in their grandparent's generation would never say. Moreover, she would say them in a very colorful way. That was part of the exasperation for my generation, because many of us had become the staid middle agers that she never was.
A.M. was proud of her strong family ties, and proud of her independence, too. She was generous with her love and she would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. She asked only for love in return. She was much loved and will be greatly missed.
St. Peter will have his hands full dealing with her at the pearly gates.
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