A shock

A strange thing happened to me today. Stranger than usual. A note to a friend who is managing editor of a newspaper was published, with my permission, as a Letter to the Editor. I don’t think I’ve ever been published that way before. So, I went to the newspaper website to look at my masterpiece (LOL), and I decided while I was there that I would check out the various stories under the topics listed. I read about the library and the road crews and the usual local stories. I read other Letters to the Editor, and then I decided to check out the Obituaries just to see if I knew anyone who had died – this being a town where I lived off and on for many years.

As I scrolled down through the obits, I noticed names that sounded familiar. My Mom ran the office of the local TV Cable Company for many years, and I had worked there during vacations and such. Then I stopped, stunned.

My first husband had died six days ago. We’ve been divorced about 30 years, and it’s been 13 years since I even talked with him. But, I was shocked. He was three years younger than me. And, his hateful old mother was still alive. And, the wife listed was not the one he had then. How very strange. And, coincidental. I haven’t looked at that newspaper in many years, and I never read obituaries (does that mean I am getting old?).

So, I thought I’d give someone a call to express my sympathy. Easier said than done. No funeral home listed. The church phone did not answer. So I turned to the internet to look up other possibilities: the name of one pallbearer was listed but in a town 30 miles away. His mother was not listed in any neighboring town or in Mississippi at all. One daughter was married, and the obit gave her married name and town; so I “white paged” the last name and came up with a likely phone number.

Got her mother-in-law – been married only a few months to this woman’s son. Even though they live a stone’s throw apart, son and mother are not talking – supposedly because of my ex-husband’s daughter. Wow! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Turns out that this daughter and her sister were mostly raised by my ex’s harridan mother. No wonder the kid has problems. Even the harridan's pets ran away.

After listening to this mother-in-law of my ex’s daughter talk for 39 minutes long distance, I said I had to go. And, I surely am glad that I went away 30 years ago instead of hanging around for the bad movies.

Meanwhile, I’m keeping them all in my prayers, but I don’t think I’ll be making any more phone calls down that way. May God’s steadfast love and mercy be with my ex and his family.