Straws and camels.

I got a call from the nice young man who was handling our re-financing on our mortgage, he needed me to return his call before end of business day.  Four days later, different time zones, weekend, telephone tag, I finally get the young man on the phone.  He hemmed, he stammered a bit, he finally told me that we had been denied.  He hesitated, then he said that according to multiple credit reporting agencies, Douglas is dead.

Poor young man, he paused, then he gently asked me if Douglas was dead. I said “Oh hell no, I saw him this morning.”  He didn’t believe me, I could tell.  He said he believed me.  I told him our son was dead, but that so far Doug was still breathing.

I won’t bore you with the tedious hoops that must now be jumped through to prove that Douglas isn’t dead.  Of course, he can’t fill out the on-line stuff, well, because he is dead.  So a dead person has to do paper forms and submit two forms of identification.  It is okay to laugh, I am actually starting to laugh.

Our credit rating will take multiple hits because of multiple requests for our credit reports. We pay our bills, through God’s grace, no cleverness on our part.  We even kept up with all our bills when Doug was laid off, God’s grace, no kudos on our part.  We sucked our retirement funds dry, again, God’s grace that we even had put money aside. Now, we just wanted to reduce our interest rate.  That’s all.

Two things, bereaved parents, watch your financial backs. We are pretty sure someone screwed up somewhere when Justin died and mixed up the social security numbers. We also had strange credit card hits from a small town near Justin out in South Dakota.  There are opportunists out there who prey on the vulnerable.

The next, if you get a chance, read Ben Carson’s book “America the Beautiful”.  He is a world renowned neurosurgeon, author, smart guy.  I am only half-way through the book, but it is a captivating read.  Excellent book on parenting actually, and an eye-opener on the condition of this country.  I find it simply written, which is good, makes it possible for me to read and comprehend the complex subjects he tackles.  We need to get back to what made America beautiful.  Our lives are so complicated and bogged down with paperwork, forms, bureaucracy – we have no time to live.  No time to focus on what is truly important.

Life is so very short, too short to waste filling out forms.