I'm NOT dead... I swear it!!!

I'm pretty sure that we are on the tail end of our mailman's delivery route. It's pretty uncommon for us to get our mail delivered before 4:00, and it often doesn't come until after Clint gets home from work. This drives me nuts, especially if I'm waiting for something in particular.

Yesterday, I wasn't waiting for anything, but it still turned out to be a bad day to have late-delivered mail. I retrieved the mail from the mailbox around 5:30, and sorted through the stack of envelopes as I was preparing dinner: to toss, to shred, and to open and review after dinner. In the middle of sorting, I paused, then picked up the envelope that I had just placed in the 'to open after dinner' pile. This is what appeared in the address window:

Hmmm. Peculiar. Since when do I have an estate??? Intrigued, I decided that this specific envelope could and should be opened immediately. This is what the enclosed letter began with:

Hmmm. Even more peculiar. I continued preparing the dinner, dumbfounded, as I pondered what this meant, and how it could have happend. I'm fairly certain that Ruth McKeachnie is not an extremely common name, so the idea that another Ruth McKeachnie had died and they sent the letter to my address by mistake seemed ludicrous. The more I pondered the idea, the more nervous and paranoid I became. Had my identity been stolen? Had my life insurance been paid out to somebody else? Was my whole life about to go down the drain? (emphasis on the paranoid part)

I picked up the phone and immediately called the phone number listed on the letter. The letter said they were available until 9 pm ET. After dialing, I remained on hold as I waited my turn with the next available customer service representative... for 30 minutes!!! After 30 minutes, I realized that I needed to hurry and eat some dinner and get going, because it was mutual night, and I needed to be at the church at 6:30 (others were depending on my keys to get in the building). Curses on the mailman for delivering our mail so late!!! I really needed to leave, but I really didn't want to leave this unresolved all night. It did not bode well for a sound sleep. Not really having a choice, I hung up the phone, and went about my evening plans.

This morning, however, I called bright and early. My call was answered immediately by a very polite-sounding woman. I explained about the letter that I received, told her that I was Ruth McKeachnie and that I was pretty sure I wasn't dead, and my account was now canceled, and I wanted to know why they thought I was dead, and how do I prove that I'm not dead. How does one prove that she isn't dead?

The poor girl seemed quite flustered and confused and apologetic. I'm sure this isn't something she encounters every day. Perhaps they don't even train them how to handle such a situation. I had to give her my account number, my address, and the last 4 digits of my SS#. She looked the full SS# on my account up on the Social Security Registry to discover that yup, sure enough, the Ruth McKeachnie linked with that SS# was indeed still alive and kicking (seriously, shouldn't they do that before they accept a death report?). Looking in the notes on my account, she was able to tell me that a 'woman' called in on 1/11 to inform them that her sister, Ruth McKeachnie, has been dead for years. Apparently, they did not log the name of the 'sister' that called.

At this point, I must admit that my mind was thinking of my 3 sisters, wondering which of them would pull such a nasty prank on me (sorry guys). That thought didn't last long, luckily. The CS representative seemed rather sheepish at this point, insisting that she was so very sorry about this, and that she will re-instated my account immediately, and that she will look into this further to discover who exactly is responsible for this, yada yada yada.

That situation seemed somewhat resolved, and yet I'm still a little nervous. How could such a thing happen so easily? Was this an honest mistake, or is there something more sinister at work? And who else thinks I am dead?