I received a voice mail from Marla Rawnsley on December 20th, 2013. She attempted to return my call while I was traveling for the holidays and I missed it. Marla said, “Hey David. This is Marla returning your call. It’s about 11:45 here. Uhm, I can be reached here until one o’clock today and then otherwise I’m pretty much missing ’til Monday, but, uhm, this number’s (386) [redacted]. Thanks. Bye.”

I wasn’t able to return her call until the day after Christmas. I called her at about ten to nine on December 26th, but her office was closed and my call simply went to the receptionist’s voice mail.

I called Marla Rawnsley at ten o’clock while driving to work. Jan the receptionist told me that she was out at lunch and suggested I leave a voice mail, which I did.

I said, “Hey, Marla. It’s David Gagne just calling to check in.” I left my phone number twice and asked her to give me a call.

As of December 11th, 2013, it had been over two full weeks since Marla Rawnsley said she’d get back to me in 24 to 48 hours, and just shy of one week since I emailed her to ask for an update.

So I called her office to see if I could get her on the phone. Someone named Jan answered the phone at Pappas, Russell & Rawnsley. I asked to speak with Marla and Jan asked me if I was a client. I said that I was and she asked me to hold. Less than a minute later she returned to tell me that Marla was out of the office.

Jan asked me if I’d like to leave her a voice mail and I asked if it would be okay if I called back. She said that Marla had likely gone to lunch and had left the office about ten minutes ago. I asked Jan if she was going to return to the office. Jan said Marla’s assistant was out sick, said she checked Marla’s calendar and saw that she had nothing scheduled for the afternoon, and that she would probably return after two-thirty. I said I’d try again in an hour and a half.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to try calling Marla again until almost two o’clock, which is the end of the day on the East coast. I called and asked for her and was told she’d already left for the day. The woman who answered the phone asked if she could put me through to her voice mail and I said, “Okay.”

After a moment I heard an electronic voice instructing me to leave a message for extension 310. I said, “Hello, Marla. This is David Gagne. G-A-G-N-E. I’m calling about my mother, Kathleen Gagne.” I repeated my phone number twice and said, “Thank you,” and hung up.