Every evening at exactly 7 PM, the police knock on my door with news of a death that isn’t mine to grieve.
It started about a month ago, around 7 pm in the evening I heard a knock at the door, I wasn’t expecting any visitors so I was slightly confused, I don’t think i have ever gotten an unexpected visitor before then, I just don’t really talk to any neighbors and I live alone so it wasn’t like a roommate who had forgotten their keys or anything.
Either way I went over to the door and looked out of the peephole where an officer stood looking very uncomfortable, which only added to my confusion, my first thought was that there had been a car crash or something like that and they wanted to see if I had a ring camera or something so I opened the door.
“Can I help you Officer?”
The man stared at me for a moment before clearing his throat and nodded “Yes, I am sorry to inform you Maam, but…” he took a long pause, an uncomfortably long pause where I just stood there starring at him.
I could feel my palms starting to sweat, it was clear from the mans face that something was deeply wrong and now all of the sudden a million thoughts ran trough my mind at what kind of scenarios could have happened.
“You’re husband was… hit by a drunk driver and declared dead at 6 pm tonight Maam, I am… sorry for your loss.”
I stood there in silence for a long moment as I stared at him, brow furrowed lightly as my thoughts came to a screeching halt trying to make sense of the sentence before simply shaking my head slowly “I’m… sorry Officer, but, you must have the wrong house, I am not married”
The man simply nodded, the sad expression on his face not changing.
“Alright, well, his body is currently at Westfield hospital, I wish you a good evening maam.”
And before I had a chance to correct him he turned around and walked off, I stared for a moment before yelling out to him “please try and find the actual house! someone is waiting for their husband!”
But he fully ignored me, simply getting into his car and driving off.
I honestly don’t know how long I stood in the doorway, I was dumbfounded, maybe the old owner of my house still had it on his ID card or something? I honestly had no idea what to make of the whole situation, I thought for a moment I should call down to the station but what would I even say? I am not the widow? No, the man, whoever he was, would surely be declared missing soon right? and then it would all be solved there.
Either way it left a really bitter taste in my mouth, knowing that someone had lost their beloved only about an hour ago put a damper on the whole evening, it’s one of those things you don’t really think about, but it does technically happen everyday.
Either way I decided to go to bed early that night and hopefully forget about it in the morning, I wasn’t exactly that lucky but work and pizza for dinner made it feel a lot better and by the end of the next day it was mostly out of my mind.
Till around 7 pm when I got a knock on the door again, the thoughts flooding back instantly and with a grunt of irritation I stood up to see whoever had brought that sort of thing to the forefront of my mind.
Looking out the peephole I saw an officer, a different one this time, I let out a soft sigh of relief, thinking that this had to be someone coming to apologize for the mix-up on behalf of the department, so with a friendly smile I opened the door up.
“Evening Officer”
The man didn’t even look at me, he was quite a bit taller than be with sunglasses on, he didn’t stare at me, he stared straight ahead, as if he didn’t want to look at me, so much for a formal apology, it was better than anything at least.
“Evening miss, I Regret to inform you that we have found your son washed up on the shore earlier today, I am sorry for your loss”
I stared at him in bewilderment for about 10 seconds, it was strange, I could practically see his body language and face features shift during the silence, the stoic straight posture and face practically crumbling, as if he wasn’t ready for silence like that, as if he didn’t want to be the one to do this.
“What?” Finally came out of my mouth and he simply nodded as if I was saying it out of unbelieved sorrow rather than confusion.
“I am truly sorry Maam, he is currently being held in Tia Hospital” and with those words he turned around, walking back to his car where I yelled after him “I am not a mom!” which seemed to make him slump even deeper down and he sped off quickly.
I had no idea how to react, not only had i never had a kid, but I live in a completely landlocked state, there was no shore within hundreds of miles.
I was extremely confused, I could understand this type of mistake happening once, but twice? It felt impossible, so I called up my local police station, the support number of course, I wouldn’t want to clog up the emergency line.
A Woman took the call and I politely gave my name and said that I had now had two instances of police officers telling me the deaths of people not associated with me.
Then the woman on the other side said “I am so sorry to hear about your loss miss, but please, these accidents happen, would you like for me to give you the number to a grief councilor?”
I tried again explaining to the woman that no, I am not grieving, I haven’t lost anyone and someone out there might never know their lost son has been found if this doesn’t get fixed.
Once more the woman simply said she understood I was having a hard time but she had to take police work related calls and that she would be happy to give me a therapists or councilors number if I needed it.
I declined again and she simply hung up the call.
I was baffled, so, I took the next step, I decided to look up the hospital that was currently in possession of the missing child and see if they could give the important information to the right people.
Looking up the hospital i found out that it was 4 states away, made sense, it had to be by the shore, but why would they think i was the person in need of contact then? either way I got the hospitals phone number and called, after waiting in line for a few minutes I got trough to the support line and explained my situation again, giving him of course my full name.
“I’m sorry for your loss Maam, but I think you need to get a hold of funeral arrangements for the body”
I honestly didn’t know what to say, I simply hung up the call in bewilderment, why did no one believe me?
It’s been almost a month at this point, so far I have lost 12 Husbands, 2 Wives, 7 Sons, and 9 Daughters.
I have no idea what to do, I have tried not answering the door but then they just arrive an hour later or simply wait.
One time I got home late from work to see an officer standing in my driveway, I have no idea what I am supposed to do, it is laying a layer of sadness over every single day, the officer is never the same person, the circumstances are always different, please, if anyone knows what can be done I would love to hear it!
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