Beverley's Call

On Sun Nov 9, I receive two calls, which I ignore. Just as I'm leaving to meet family and relatives for lunch, I get a third call and answer, thinking it is my mother. But it's Beverley. (Message below is her earlier call.) She asks if I am all right, saying how worried she's been after trying to reach me 'all week' (the period my uncle is in hospital); she stresses this point.

We speak briefly, as I have to leave. Later that evening, my uncle dies. It is the 9th of November -- 9/11.

Beverley's Call

Questions About Beverley:

1. I've only met Beverley once at a Racism & National Consciousness Conference- we had never spoken by phone before.

2. Why call all week just to tell me you're worried about me? (6 calls)

3. Why not leave a message, if you want to reach me?

4. Why call twice within an hour on Sunday?
This suggests urgency. Yet, after a brief conversation, we make no plans and I never hear from her again.


Analysis of Phone Message:

1. Message is contradictory. She says she is concerned about my well-being due to not reaching me. Yet in her first and only message to me, after four previous attempts, she says: 'Be there' and 'Answer your (my) phone,' as she will be 'calling back at 1 o'clock'.

2. If you can't reach someone all week and still get no answer during the weekend, do you assume this person is home and just not picking up their phone?

3. Do you then leave a message that assumes the person will get your message in time for your second call an hour later?

4. None of this makes sense - especially coming from a total stranger. My own mother would not assume so much about me - ie, my whereabouts, the likelihood of picking up a message right away, and my willingness or ability to answer a second call attempt.