"The report of my death was an exaggeration."

Mark Twain is responsible for the quote in the title of this entry, but it could very well have been said by the person in the story below. Here's a reminder of how important it is to be aware of your medium in communications. Recently I came across the following e-mail:

Let me start with this: my Mom is fine.

She is not dead. She is not ill. She never was. (Knock on wood.)

There is humor in this now, but I'm sure all parties involved felt horrible- except my Mom, who is in much better shape than was reported.

You may want to know the back story on this one - -

Apparently the mother of (Name Omitted 1)'s friend (Name Omitted 2) died. She called (Name Omitted 3), also a friend of (Name Omitted 2), to let her know, but (Name Omitted 1) was only able to leave a voicemail message. (Name Omitted 2) listened to the message but only heard, "... mother died." After pulling over on the side of the road and vomitting, (Name Omitted 2) then called her father, my Mother's brother, and told him my Mother had died and suggested he contact his kids to let them know. Who knows where this bit of mis-information has circulated to by now, but if you hear this incorrect rumor please correct it right away. Later, (Name Omitted 2) finally called (Name Omitted 1) and they got their stories straight. (Name Omitted 1) then called my Mother to let her know that she is not dead, even if she should hear otherwise.

Lessons I learned:

1. I will never again leave a voicemail message with the word "died." Instead I will say something like, "Please call me back as soon as possible. It's important."
2. I am reminded again of the importance of verifying my sources. If do I hear about death by way of voicemail my first call will be to the person who left the message, and I will make no other calls regarding this until I can verify it with my source.
3. The game "Operator" we played in 3rd grade can come in handy.

Even here this story loses something in translation, but you can imagine how quickly something like this can get out of hand. And there's a bit of humor in it too - it's almost out of an I Love Lucy episode - in retrospect.

For more thoughts on the communication medium, see my next entry Communication Takes 3 Parts.