Today I’m starting a new feature for the I Do Declare posts, which I’ll post on the fourth Monday. It’s called “This is going to end up in my novel one day,” and by “This,” I mean a person, event, situation, or some crazy thing I witnessed in the course of my day.

When I sat down to think through ideas for this feature, it didn’t take long for Rosalee to come to mind. Here’s how I met her:

One day a while back – and I do mean a while back, because we had phones that hung on the wall with answering machines beside them. What do you mean, am I that old? Where are your manners?

Anyway. As I was saying, one day a while back, I came home from running an errand and saw that I had a few messages.

The first was the voice of an elderly woman: “Hi Carol. This is Rosalee. I can’t come in to work today. I have to go to the doctor because my leg is hurting and I can’t clean your house very good if I have to hobble around. I will see you tomorrow.”

Clearly this woman had dialed the wrong number. I hoped the second message was her calling back to say, “oops, sorry, dialed wrong number” … but it was someone trying to sell me something.

At that time, the answering machine recorded only the message, not the number. And I couldn’t do the *69 call-back because she wasn’t the last call to come in. Yes, it was a really long time ago. Go stand in the corner until you can show some respect for your elders.

Back to the story: With no other information, there was nothing I could do. I just hoped Rosalee’s employer would believe that she actually had called in.

A few weeks later, I had another message from Rosalee. “Hi Carol. This is Rosalee. I can’t come in to work today because my stomach is upset. I don’t know if it’s the flu or something I ate, but I don’t want to bring it to your house. I will see you tomorrow.”

As before, it wasn’t the last call and I had no other details.

Over the next few weeks, Rosalee left several messages, mentioning various ailments. A sore hip that was giving her problems. A cramp in her back where she must have twisted it sleeping wrong. A bout of “reumatiz.”

I had been concerned about whether she’d be able to keep her job after all the no-shows (because Carol wasn’t receiving her messages), but now I was starting to worry about her health.

One day, the phone rang and guess who it was? Yes! Rosalee was on the line. I was excited.

“Rosalee! Oh my gosh, I’m so glad to hear from you!”

I told her she’d been calling the wrong number for quite a while, and she gave a merry laugh when I said I’d been worried about her health.

I asked what number she’d been trying. It turns out she was one number off. (How she managed to get one number off all those times was a mystery, but I left that part of it unsolved. The poor woman had health issues to deal with.) I was glad to have Carol’s number.

I asked how she was feeling and listened while she recanted her doctor’s orders and the miserable state of her health insurance.

Before we ended the call, I asked for her number – so I could call now and then to see how she was feeling, I said.

The following week, there was another message. “Hi Carol. This is Rosalee. I can’t work today because I have to go to the doctor for my follow-up. I will see you tomorrow.”

Oh dear. I picked up the phone to call her back but decided to call Carol instead. I got her answering machine.

{{{This is Carol. Please leave a message. BEEEEP.}}}

“Hi Carol. My name is Shelia, and I just wanted to let you know that Rosalee has been calling my number by mistake to let you know she couldn’t make it to work. Thought you’d like to know that she really has called in.” I left my number in case she had any questions.

Carol called later, and we giggled over the situation. I told her I was worried that she’d lose her job over what looked like less than stellar work ethics. She said not to worry: Rosalee was a true gem and her job was safe.

Rosalee continued to misdial my number for several more months. Whenever she called, I listened to the message, complete with symptoms and treatments, then I simply called Carol and relayed the message.

It was the least I could do for a worker who was a true gem.