TULSA, OK—Late Sunday evening, just after area resident Beatrice Kennealy, 86, had cleaned up her kitchen after supper, she received a phone call, which is unusual for her at that time of night. "It must have been after 7, for heaven's sake. I don't know who would call at such an hour," she commented.
That was her first clue that something was not right about the situation, although she assumed it must be an emergency. When she picked up, the man on the other line greeted her, saying only, "Mom, it's me."
This was a strange situation indeed, as Mrs. Kennealy had never had any children. She queried, "Who's 'me?'" to which the response came, "I'm your son!"
The octogenarian was put off by how certain the caller seemed to be that he had reached the correct person. After all, Mrs. Kennealy has a distinct voice after several years of smoking. Again eyeing the clock, she followed up with, "Well, this had better be important!"
The caller then went on to explain that he was sorry for the late call, but that it was, in fact, important. He stated that he had been stranded when his car broke down in a small town in New Mexico, and he needed her to wire him several hundred dollars so that he could get his car repaired.
A generous and kindhearted woman, Mrs. Kennealy, who was widowed five years prior, was moved by the story, and said that she would be happy to wire him as much as he needed, whether he was her son or not. She asked him to hold on the line while she found a pen to write down where and how to send the money.
At this point, Mrs. Kennealy took approximately 10 minutes to locate a pen, as she had misplaced one in her television room after doing crossword puzzles. While the caller was on the line, Mrs. Kennealy commented on her latest knee problems, and updated him on the area's weather over the last several days. She then explained how her garden was doing so far, including the peas, raspberries, squash, and even the carrots.
She asked specifically that we inform all of The Colon's readers that they are all doing well, though she doesn't trust the squirrels.
Now, with pen in hand, Mrs. Kennealy set out to find a piece of paper upon which to write down the information about how to wire a person money. She eventually settled upon the back of a grocery list she kept on the refrigerator.
By this point, she was 20 minutes into the call, and had covered every topic from her neighbors' dogs to how hard it is to ever find a ripe melon at her local grocer.
She finally asked the man on the line how to wire him money. As she started to write down the process, she found that she could not get her pen to work other than intermittently. She spent approximately 5 minutes starting and then pausing the man's instructions while she tried to get the pen to work.
Finally, she announced to him that she had better just find a working pen, and commented to him that she thought she had seen one in the bed room a few weeks ago, but before she could stand up to go search, the man abruptly announced that it was clear that he had dialed a wrong number, and hung up.
"Well, I don't know who he was," said Mrs. Kennealy. "But his mother should have taught him some patience."