How unlucky are we?

Last night, my son comes running up the stairs w/ his laptop in hand, freaking out.

He turns the screen towards me and says, “MOM??”

My husband’s cousin… her husband died.  Their daughter posted it at FACEBOOK but did not notify anyone in the family.  Essentially, aside from the cousin’s brothers, my family was the first to know.

I had suspected something was up all day long, why I didn’t CALL them, I don’t know.  Maybe I was afraid that it was true. 

Have we lost ALL sense of person-to-person verbal communication so much that we rely upon Internet-based websites?  Is it even more ridiculous to feel insulted and hurt that a close family member couldn’t pick up the phone and start the family phone chain?  I had to find out on FB and then break the news to my kids, husband, and inlaws?

I understand posting a funny comment, picture, or lyrics to a song at facebook.  I get people leaving me messages all of the time (I use the FB with my real name for people who do not know that I have THIS blog, and have neglected my friends at my herstory07 facebook page… my bad, I’m awful… you should unfriend me out of spite)… about stupid shit.  Imagine my angst and pure frustration when I see an indirect comment (COMMENT) at their daughter’s page saying, “I love and miss you dad.”

WHAT? what? Whaaaaat?  I think I hit forty-three levels of anxiety that I didn’t even know I had.  By the end of my phone call inquiries, I couldn’t sleep.  When I catch sleep in the middle of my tossing and turning, I dreamt about our cousin… something I’ve never done.

So… when did we lose our penache for speaking directly to people?   When I call any company, I’m impatient because I, for one, do not appreciate being put on hold.  Nor do I appreciate having to push number after number after number in hopes that a human voice will save me from that button-pushing hell.  Mostly, I do not like elevator muzak.  It gives me a headache and I can never get the damned song out of my head.

#2 son won’t answer the house phone anymore.  When I ask him to CALL someone, he’d prefer to text them.  I, too, find myself texting things, but for something that requires more than a few words with ridiculous spelling and acronyms, I pick UP the phone, dial their number, and speak with the person… voice to voice.  A skill that’s been mostly lost with this present generation.

So, you can probably understand why I have been nursing a headache, my stomach is in knots, and my eyes hurt.  I’ve been trying to get people to use the goddamn phone.  Thankfully, my mil knows how to use it (and states, “I don’t even HAVE Facebook, so if you didn’t see it, when would I be told?”)… because she’s called me about 5 times since my sil told her early this morning (we wanted her to not be up all night, worried and upset… we’ll just save that for today and tonight).

I texted the cousin’s daughter… “I just saw FB, what the hell is going on??”

NO response.  Granted, they are in shock, and I empathize with them… emphatically.  Been there, done that… have a t-shirt to prove it.

So, the next person to be annoyed with are the siblings of the cousin who were told YESTERDAY MORNING… who then could have called family.  Did they? No.
The past  19 hrs have been just purely chaotic in a hellish manner.  I shall miss our cousin… his loss is a sad loss.  (Not that any loss isn’t.)

Argh…

I think I need to go lay down for a bit…