The Canadian Liver Foundation

The Canadian Liver Foundation just called. Yes, I am not kidding. Yes, I gave them $50.00.

The poor guy, I think he said his name was Adam, he started on his spiel and as soon as I heard him say, “... calling from the Canadian Liver Foundation ...” I interrupted him and said, though I am not quite sure why, because I didn’t need to divulge this information, “Yes, our son just died of liver cancer in August, we’ll give $50.00”.

So apparently there is a way to stop a telemarketer dead, mid-sentence and render them suddenly speechless.

Until he called I had forgotten that it must be pretty much exactly a year since they last called. It was around the same time of day. I remember checking the number on call display as the phone rang. A “480-number.” I knew it was a telemarketer and I had debated not answering. But I did anyway.

Last year, I patiently listened to their spiel, “Canadian Liver Foundation ... blah blah blah ... research for liver disease ... blah blah blah”. We give a lot of money to charity. I sighed, considered it for a moment, “Should we give to the Canadian Liver Foundation?”

Then, I thought, “Oh, hell, we don’t know anyone with liver disease”. Yes, I really thought that.

And I said, “Thank you very much, but we give a lot of money to charity each year, and we just can’t afford to give anything else at this time”. And I had politely hung up.

We don’t know anyone with liver disease. Two days before taking Harry to the hospital to find out that he was, very likely, dying of metastatic liver cancer, I said no to a telemarketer from the Canadian Liver Foundation because, “we didn’t know anyone with liver disease”.

I’m not sure what that means. But if you believe in signs, then it was one of just several signs, of what was waiting for us. This year, it just seems like a cruel reminder. Yes, okay, okay, okay. I know someone who has died of liver disease.