Ignore The Phone

The plan was to go out to dinner last night. Nothing could be simpler, right? Well, you know that simply by asking that question, the answer is “wrong”. Just before we were getting set to leave, the telephone rings and the caller-ID tells me it is my mother-in-law. I suggested to my wife that she let the machine get it and that we leave.

My wife tells me that she won’t do that because all that will lead to is her mother putting in numerous phone calls while we are out. So, my wife answers the phone and her mother says, “You have to get me out of here”.

“What’s wrong,” asks my wife.

Well, we are back to the food issue and how the food is no good and all the problems with it. As I mentioned, I certainly can see the point my mother-in-law makes but it seems that no matter what they do for her, at any of the facilities, she is not going to be happy.

As we are driving to the restaurant, my wife calls the rehab center where my mother-in-law is located. She is told that they brought her mom the phone she ordered off the menu. I do not know how wide of a selection they had and if there was anything on the menu she wanted but it was, apparently what she ordered.

We have now arrived at the restaurant and are seated. My wife tells me she is going to call her mother back from the table because that way she will be prevented from yelling and screaming at her mom. She does so and tells her mother what the people at the facility told her.

Her mother starts screaming, so loud that I could hear her through my wife’s telephone, that this was not true and she did not order it. My wife is trying to respond calmly, “Mom, I’m telling you what they said to me…”

Again, she is interrupted as my mother-in-law starts screaming and then hangs up before my wife can get a word in. My wife is now very frustrated and really unable to eat. See, it would have been better if she just let the machine answer.