Who Thought Insurance Could Be Funny?

(It is two days after my dad passed away. My four siblings and I are at my mom’s house helping her go through things. The phone has been ringing pretty regularly with telemarketers. After several calls of my mom just hanging up, she starts talking with this guy. My siblings and I can only hear my mom’s side of the conversation so we’re a little confused at first.)

Mom: “Oh, I would absolutely be interested in that.”

(The telemarketer talks for a minute and Mom responds to him.)

Mom: “Yeah, that would be great, only, could we back-date it for about a week ago?”

(My siblings and I now have a pretty good idea what’s going on and are trying not to laugh too loudly in the background.)

Mom: “Well, I would really like to back-date it to at least a week ago.”

(The telemarketer again talks for a little bit and then my mom responds with this.)

Mom: “Well, you see, my husband passed away two days ago, so it would really need to be back-dated.” *small pause as the telemarketer says something* “Oh, you can’t do that?”

(My mom hangs up the phone and tells us what it was all about. The guy wanted to sell her life insurance for my dad. He got into the pitch and was obviously excited to get a sale when my mom finally told him Dad had died. The guy just stammered out:)

Telemarketer: “Wh… what? We… We can’t do that, ma’am.” 

(It was the first real laugh we’d had in two days. My dad had a great sense of humor and we all agreed he would’ve thought it was hilarious. So, thank you, telemarketer, whoever you are. We really needed that at that moment.)