And more...
Jun. 13th, 2005 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI did finally get Cousin David on the phone and he was delightful. He's always been a sweetie. And he still is. I told him that Mom be delighted if he called but that 1. She might not remember it and 2. She might not remember what he said and 3. She had a tendency to be kind of crabby.
He laughed and reminded me that he took care of Aunt Etta for bascillion years so he could handle anything.
David never married. And neither did Etta who was the sister of his father and my grandfather. Etta lived to be about 400 years old and for the last 3rd of her life David lived with her and took care of her. I remember her well - even though we never lived close to her and I probably only saw her about a dozen times, the last time being when I was probably 12 or 13. I remember she had the softest, smoothest skin of any human being I had ever met. And beautiful white hair and a face that looked like it was made for porcelain. I also remember that most everyone was afraid of her. And I remember that for years and years, every single Christmas, she gave my sister and me matching (but in different colors) dresses from Neiman Marcus. (We never lived in Texas and Neiman Marcus - back then - was only in Dallas - so having dresses from there was nearly exotic!)
But, I digress.
Then I had a lovely couple of hours with no Mom anything. (Well, I got a snotty note from my sister but by that time I had decided that I was going to ignore anything from her for the rest of the day.)
Then I got an email from the trust people... Bank of America apparently did not cancel Mom's credit card last Fall as I instructed them to. We figured this out when they sent a bill for the $90 annual charge. So... I picked up the phone and gave them a call. I kept getting transferred until I finally hit The Person Who Could Handle The Deal.
I invoked my sweet voice and removed all sarcasm and said 'Look. We're not going to pay the $90. We're not going to use the credit card. You can keep the account open if you like and waste money trying to collect. Heck, you can even ruin Mom's credit over this if you want to - at 83, it's not going to hurt her any. Seems to me it would be smarter for you just to close the account, but, it's your call."
She said she would close the account and send a letter of confirmation. Wise choice.
He laughed and reminded me that he took care of Aunt Etta for bascillion years so he could handle anything.
David never married. And neither did Etta who was the sister of his father and my grandfather. Etta lived to be about 400 years old and for the last 3rd of her life David lived with her and took care of her. I remember her well - even though we never lived close to her and I probably only saw her about a dozen times, the last time being when I was probably 12 or 13. I remember she had the softest, smoothest skin of any human being I had ever met. And beautiful white hair and a face that looked like it was made for porcelain. I also remember that most everyone was afraid of her. And I remember that for years and years, every single Christmas, she gave my sister and me matching (but in different colors) dresses from Neiman Marcus. (We never lived in Texas and Neiman Marcus - back then - was only in Dallas - so having dresses from there was nearly exotic!)
But, I digress.
Then I had a lovely couple of hours with no Mom anything. (Well, I got a snotty note from my sister but by that time I had decided that I was going to ignore anything from her for the rest of the day.)
Then I got an email from the trust people... Bank of America apparently did not cancel Mom's credit card last Fall as I instructed them to. We figured this out when they sent a bill for the $90 annual charge. So... I picked up the phone and gave them a call. I kept getting transferred until I finally hit The Person Who Could Handle The Deal.
I invoked my sweet voice and removed all sarcasm and said 'Look. We're not going to pay the $90. We're not going to use the credit card. You can keep the account open if you like and waste money trying to collect. Heck, you can even ruin Mom's credit over this if you want to - at 83, it's not going to hurt her any. Seems to me it would be smarter for you just to close the account, but, it's your call."
She said she would close the account and send a letter of confirmation. Wise choice.
