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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Another Installment of "It Gets Worse"

You'll remember our home-bound friend from this recent post. Well, he shared another story with me today that was just too fun to keep to myself.

Our friend and his wife live in an apartment complex for seniors that is one of many such complexes in our area, all of which are owned and operated by the same landlord. These apartment complexes are all very similar in appearance, all units painted the same color and with the same basic construction and layout. In the community where our friends live, there are two such complexes within an easy walk of each other.

Today, while his wife was away from the apartment for a couple of hours, our friend was relaxing in his recliner, wearing only his shorts and a tee shirt, when he glimpsed a car pulling into his driveway. Then the doorbell rang. Then an elderly woman began pounding on the front window, then back to the door, ringing the doorbell and kicking the door.

Our friend's physical limitations make it difficult for him to move around in the apartment any more than necessary; and, besides, he really wasn't dressed for company. So he did nothing at first. But, after about 15 minutes of the pounding, ringing, and kicking, he decided "What you see is what you get" and opened the door.

The woman, apparently undaunted by our friend's attire, demanded to know where "Flora" was, and she wouldn't believe him when he told her that there was no Flora in that apartment. He finally got it through to her that perhaps she would find Flora in the other set of look-alike apartments.

Afterward, our friend told his wife that what he should have said to his visitor was, "Don't worry; it gets worse."

9 comments:

  1. That is hilarious! I wonder if the lady's first thought when a man came to the door in his underwear was that her friend "Flora" wasn't quite the "lady" she pretended to be! :)

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  2. Ha! I wondered about that, too, Sandy. I would like to have heard the conversation between her and Flora when they finally found each other.

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  3. Very funny story, Linda. But it seems it could happen to anyone.

    My friend came to visit me when I lived in a Montreal apartment. She'd been to visit several times and I did see her car parked out front and across a main street three stories below. I awaited her knock which never came. Finally I saw her head back into her car. And drive away.

    She phoned from a phone booth (long before cell phones) and told me she'd been knocking on my door for about ten minutes. The person at what was obviously the wrong apartment wouldn't open the door but told her she had the wrong place. She thought it was me messing around. She got goofy and tried to make "me" laugh with some silly private jokes between us. She only scared the person to the point they no longer spoke to her.

    Until she phoned me and I swore to her that it wasn't me, she had no idea that she walked into the wrong building. The apartments weren't even close in appearance either. They both had lovely and very different courtyards. It was just an "it gets worse" moment, in the day of a 20-something year old woman. ;)

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  4. I love that story, Hilary. So how is your friend now? Is she in "the home" yet? :)

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  5. Ha! We've decided that one day we'll be in a home together. We figure that if we're both single by the time we can no longer comfortably/safely/logically live alone, we'll just have to move in together (à la Golden Girls) and look out for each other. For now, she's about to share a condo with her young daughter. By the ways, this is the same friend who we sewed into her Cat in the Hat costume. ;)

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  6. Hilary-Sandra and I often talk about the day when we'll have to go to "the home" and speculate on both of us going to the same one. Maybe we'll have to work out something with you and your Cat in the Hat friend. We could have some good times.

    So, how is it that your friend is not a blogger? It sounds as if she would have some interesting stories to tell.

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  7. A good question. Actually, she's an ESL teacher for adult students and spends a lot of time working on lessons, corrections, evaluations.. etc. She hasn't much interest in continuing to write on the computer after all is said and done. Besides.. she might blog about ME! ;)

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  8. Hilary-It surprises me that Sandy didn't have that concern when she encouraged me to start a blog. If your friend ever does enter the blogging world, be sure to let me know. I'll be one of her first readers.

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  9. Will do, Linda. I'm hoping to get together with her next week so I'll try to remember to mention it. And truthfully, I'm not the least bit concerned if she would write about me. I think it would be a blast. :)

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