Hmmmm....

My MIL had a new boss who hated her. She was about three years from retirement, and she felt like he was trying to push her out early so she’d lose part of her pension etc.

She asked me to check her answering machine while she was gone after her mother died and let her know if anything important came in, and to water her plants.

The third day or so I’d been there, there was a message from this boss giving his condolences. Then you could hear the click where he thought he’d hung up but must have placed the receiver just wrong and was still on the line. He ruthlessly made fun of her with his wife for the next five minutes before saying “Oh, s**t!” and hanging up.

She was at a really low point in her life, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her or leave the message on the machine. It would have absolutely crushed her. But I did record it, and then I deleted it from her machine.

Then I called and told him what I had, why I wasn’t telling her RIGHT NOW (but absolutely would if needed in the future), and told him I’d better hear nothing but how wonderful work was going for her and how well she was treated until she retired. I told him I didn’t even understand what a piece of s**t you had to be to talk about someone like that behind their back, and especially at such a time in their life.

And that’s exactly what happened. She had a wonderful last few years and figured that her mother dying had opened him up to treat her kindly and with respect.

That was twenty years ago and I never told her and never will. I wouldn’t want to ever take those last few years there away from her.

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