She started crying

This is going to be very long. TLDR at the bottom

I just took this call a couple days ago on Sunday, Mother’s Day. Her name is Sharlie (fake name so I can keep her privacy). A very unusual spelling for a very unusual customer.

The call started off very normal, she wanted to make a payment on her insurance but with her credit card not her checking account. She wanted to capitalize on the points she was going to get, and what better way than making a giant payment every month.

I feel terribly for this, but in the beginning, I was actually getting a little frustrated for some reason. I don’t even remember why. I’d had a bad day and it was rubbing off on me.

“I just have to find my card number real quick,” she had a thick, beautiful Trinidad accent. I love listening to accents so I really enjoyed listening to her.

“My husband and I have the same bank and get the same points so I guess I can just use his since I have it right here,” she was going to read off her card number, and then was interrupted.

“Oh, my sister is calling.” Her voice got a bit heavy, “I’m going to ignore it. She’s probably only going to try and tell me happy Mother’s Day.” And then full on sobs. I had no idea what to do, I’m very awkward in situations like it.

She continued before I could say anything, “You see, I’m not a mother. My son died three years ago, so I am no longer a mother. But every year, my mother calls me and tells me happy Mother’s Day. But I’m not a mother anymore. How could she wish me happy Mother’s Day? There’s nothing happy about it. My sister also calls me and tells me happy Mother’s Day. And I hate it. I hate when people tell me happy Mother’s Day.” She was still sobbing and my heart absolutely broke for her.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry to hear that, that’s absolutely awful. You are still a mother, though Sharlie.” I interjected. I wanted to help her stop crying.

She apologized for crying and I told her she had no reason at all to apologize. I didn’t mind at this point. I no longer felt awkward, I felt compassion for her. I can’t remember when, but we got the payment taken and she asked me something.

“Are you a mother, Aloaacc?”

I was not, except to a pair of cats I love to death.

“That is still a mother!” She exclaimed. “I love cats, too. You are their mother, you take care of them and they rely on you.” This woman on my line was the sweetest person I could ever imagine. She told me a story of how her daughter-in-law had adopted a stray cat she found shorty after her husband passed away. She told me how her DIL loved that cat so much and put all her energy into him like she did for Sharlie’s son. How her DIL was there for him and her cat until the very end. Her cat unfortunately had to be put down due to an illness. I couldn’t imagine losing my future husband or my sweet little cats.

She told me how she wasn’t a very religious woman but she prayed for her son.

She also told me how she loves animals so incredibly much, and how her husband wasn’t as big of a fan as she. “Recently,” she started, “My husband found a raccoon out in our yard. They are such smart creatures.” It’s hard to remember exactly which order she said everything, but the gist is they found the raccoon and also found her babies. The husband hid her babies from her since he didn’t want anymore raccoons around the house.

He put them in a bucket and put the lid on. It broke my heart thinking about how their mother couldn’t find them. She told me how the temperature that night got down to 34 degrees. He told her not to move the bucket. So she hadn’t.

“Where did the babies go? Did you move the lid?” He asked of her. She told him the truth, she hadn’t touched the bucket at all. She told me she prayed for the raccoon family, though. She wanted to make sure they would be okay. “The lid is off the bucket and the babies are gone.”

The mother raccoon had somehow got the lid off the bucket and rescued her babies. Sharlie told me how she theorizes they went to live under an abandoned house next door. And hopefully are still safe

I told her about my cats, their personalities, what they look like, how even both of them were sleeping in the same room I was working in and how it was very hard not to constantly smother them with my love.

We talked for 40 minutes on a call that takes no more than 5 minutes to complete. She told me she loved me at the end of the call. Sharlie, if you’re reading this; I love you too.

TLDR; Sharlie calls in to make a payment, got a call from her sister and cried because she lost her son three years ago and told me she loved me.