Woman, 75, gets phone call about her funeral arrangements

Thu May 1, 2008 4:42 PM EDT
advertisement

METHUEN — Rose Griffin is not dead, so the call from someone trying to arrange her funeral was a bit of a shock. The Methuen woman got the call at a late hour Friday night from someone looking for her son, who was not there.

When an irate Griffin used her caller ID to call back, the man informed her he was a funeral director trying to make arrangements for her son's dead mother.

The 75-year-old Griffin told him: "You're talking to the dead person."

Joe Cataudella, co-owner of Cataudella Funeral Home, said someone played a "cruel prank" and left a message with the home's answering service that Griffin had died.

Griffin, a Wal-Mart greeter, joked that she expects to be around for some time because she's mean and only the good die young.

She says she has no idea who was behind the prank.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
  • 7 Votes
  • Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.

Back To Top

Published to:

What's this?
Who's leading the conversation?
This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.
0.5
{"commentId":1755839,"authorDomain":"kylen"}
KyleN

These kinds of pranks are cruel. My grandparents once got a late night call from a man claiming to be with the Texas state troopers to inform them my father had died in a car wreck. Which was certainly not the case. Why do people do these things? How can that possibly be funny?

{"commentId":1755839,"threadId":"258380","contentId":"1464175","authorDomain":"kylen"}
    Reply#1 - Thu May 1, 2008 5:04 PM EDT
    {"commentId":1758797,"authorDomain":"sunnyshine"}
    Meggy

    I have no idea. It's not funny under any circumstances. And it's not even as if the perpetrators are there to see the results of their actions, like they would be with any number of cruel "in person" pranks they could choose from. I don't understand those either -- and I definitely don't understand these.

    {"commentId":1758797,"threadId":"258380","contentId":"1464175","authorDomain":"sunnyshine"}
      Reply#2 - Fri May 2, 2008 1:15 PM EDT
      {"canLink":false,"threadId":"258380","isPrivate":false}
      Leave a Comment:
      You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
      Newsvine Privacy Statement
      As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.
      {"threadId":"258380","contentId":"1464175"}
      Start TrackingStart Tracking
      Stop TrackingStop Tracking
      Back To Top | Front Page