I called Woodland Terrace and Ida answered the phone. I said, “Hello, Ida,” and she said, “Hello, Mr. Gagne.”
I asked her if I could get a phone number for James Thompson, the new administrator. Ida laughed and said, “I’m not giving you his personal contact information.”
I said, “I’m not asking for his personal contact information. I’m asking for his professional contact information.”
Ida said, “Well that’s the only phone number I have for him and I’m not giving it to you. You need to call and talk to the administrator on Monday.”
I said, “Ida, please. Imagine if this was your mom. Can you just tell me if you’re not going to give her any more Risperdal?”
Ida said, “I’m not gonna converse with you. You need to talk to the administrator on Monday.”
I said, “That’s not going to do me any good if she’s dead on Monday!”
At this point Ida said, “You know it is against the law to record this conversation. I did not give you permission to do so.” She said something else about a law in the state of Florida and how it was illegal for me to record her without her authorization. 1
I told her I wasn’t recording the call, and she didn’t have to worry about the whole world hearing how rude she was. She said that she wasn’t being rude; she was being professional. I said, “You hung up on me two times!”
Ida said, “You need to talk to the administrator on Monday.”
I said, “Okay. Thank you, Ida,” and I hung up.
The entire call lasted four minutes.
1 It seemed pretty clear that Ida is somewhat aware of this website. Last night on one of our phone calls she said, “And I’d appreciate it if my name doesn’t appear on the Internet.” I asked her what she was talking about and she said something like, “It’s my privacy.” I didn’t think to ask her if she realized her name was on the Woodland Terrace website.