We Have Been Busy

We Have Been Busy

Since Wendy and I went up to Liverpool last month to make the arrangements for Mum's funeral, the days have passed by almost in a flash. We have been busy, designing and proof-reading the Order of Service, and making sure everyone is primed about timings, etc. I also arranged for an Announcement in the Daily Telegraph, which will go in on Saturday, 12 September.

That was quite an interesting exercise in itself, mainly because it is extremely difficult to talk to a human being for advice; they all want you to go on line and Do It Yourself, but I am not good at DIY, and needed some guidance. It's also very expensive to place an Announcement, and I didn't want to find that if I had rewritten it with, say, one word less, I could have saved a lot of money: Mum would not have been pleased!

In the end, I left an answerphone message on a news desk telephone number, asking if someone could help me; to my relief, a short while later, a lady rang me back, promising to forward my request to a human being, and get them to call me on the landline.

Perseverance pays off: In due course, a very helpful gentleman called, and went through every word of the Announcement with me. He also advised me on the best day to place the announcement - Saturdays are good, because these are the days with the highest circulation - so we plumped for 12 September. He provided precisely the kind go advice I wanted, and guided me to the most effective wording.

I then got in touch with the Liverpool Echo. Again, it was almost impossible to speak to anyone directly! and I left an answerphone message on the news desk telephone number, giving a brief outline of Mum's life and asking if they might be interested in running a piece about a very interesting Liverpool lass.

To my delight, one of the reporters got in touch and said they would like to write about Mum, He asked, "Do you have anything written down about her? and do you have any photographs?"

"I certainly do!" I said, "and I can get them over to you by lunch time!"

I immediately set to work, creating a little set of a story about Mum and 8 photos - of Mum as a girl with Grandma in England, and then on the Empress of Scotland, going out to East Africa; there were others of Mum in Durban, and with us at The Ritz on her 100th birthday, and another in the garden, with Blackie and Pushkin. I also included copies of a couple of articles Mum had written for Best of British and This England, and sent everything off by e-mail.

Presently, the reporter called me again, requesting a little more information, including a tribute to Mum.  I worked on this with both Al and Wendy, so it was a real team effort.

When I hadn't heard anything further over the weekend, on Monday, (7 September), I rang the Echo again. This time, to my surprise, I actually got through to another Editor, who told me the story had gone on line on 30 August. I was of course very pleased to hear it was out there, but also a bit disappointed that it might not go in the newspaper as well. I explained that as Mum had been over 100 years old, a lot of people that she knew were equally elderly, and it was very unlikely they would be using computers and apps to read the article; even their children would most likely be in their 70s and 80s, and may not be computer literate, either.

He understood what I meant; I said it would have been so important to Mum to know she would be featured in the Liverpool Echo, the city of her birth, and he promised to see what he could do. I can only hope something positive will come of it!

It makes me smile and exasperated in equal measure, at the carefree way most people under a certain age seem automatically to assume everyone, of all ages, will be able to access the latest information, using apps, tweets, Facebook, etc.  You name it, they think everyone is au fait with the latest technology; but we are not, of course.

I predict one day someone will pull a great big plug out of the wall, and all the computers will sigh gently and close down. We shall then have to resort to sending proper letters; speaking to each other in person; and having human beings manning switchboards, putting callers through to the relevant members of staff who can help. This will do away with the dire automated menus, interspersed with music to drive you mad by, and long lists of options - none of which applies to what you want to ask.

I have a suspicion that these things are specifically designed to put people off contacting a company; they just encourage callers to give up and put the phone down.

One day this may change! Then I - and others like me - shall be ready to ride in with my superb inter-personal skills, and save the day!