Bridge Over Troubled Water
Dear Margaret: One
thing I know, and this I know, you see:
If you, yourself, we shouldn’t blame, then AT&T must bear the shame—anyone
else, but me.
On reading your name in the Obits last week, I was both
saddened and stunned. How long had it
been since I drove to your house and sat down with you to discuss your relationship
with my wife and me? Not all that long,
I think, and one thing that I must say is there is nothing but sadness in my
heart for your passing, regardless.
The last thing I remember saying was that that old “If
there’s ever anything I can do for you, just call” line which, of course, I
meant, sincerely, quite sincerely. When
you told my wife you were ending your relations with her, neither she nor I
knew why. When you and I talked, I
understood your frustration in thinking she did not want to work with you from
time to time on various things of concern.
As I said then, perhaps it was how her phone might have cut you off (and
without your knowledge, at that,) while you were leaving her a message you felt
she needed to hear. One strike,
AT&T, one strike indeed.
Possibly, though, another problem was when I went to their
(AT&T’s) local office to get some help with their equipment and was told
there was no way they could transfer my phone list from my old tried but true
piece of their technology to the new phone I was buying to replace it (it would
no longer charge it’s battery.) They
could not access my phone list? On their
SIM card? Sounds like a lack of training
of their personnel to me (what else could it be?) Not Me—Not ME!!! Strike two, AT&T, strike two,
indeed.
And now, here I read your name in that little front page
highlighted section of my AikenStandard, in its front page Obits. WHY, I cry?
And at your service, two days from that, again, WHY, I cry?
You were a sweet lady, my dear. There is no way else I can say this. You should be with us yet, and you
aren’t. Was it something I could have
done, dear heart?
And now, I am sure, you might have called, and I would not
have recognized you as the caller. (I
would have called you back in an instant.)
Why? Oh, God, Why? STRIKE THREE, AT&T, STRIKE Three. Damn.
AT&T does a lot of good, and for a lot of people. In
this case, though, they did not. In this
case, they failed, and failed miserably.
Sorry for that Dear Margaret.
Sorry for that.
At least your suffering is over. Maybe that is AT&T’s one saving grace. Maybe. Damn.
