Obits and Not a Day Too Soon

A few days ago I was scrolling through the local newspaper, searching the obituaries on my computer to see if a friend had passed away, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but the name Thomas P. Beck. I did a double take because I knew that I was still alive. Looking more closely, I noticed that the middle initial didn’t match. My middle initial is “R.” I was named to honor both of my grandfathers, Edson Thomas Beck and Raymond Miner. Seeing “my” name under the obituaries gave me a good chuckle before I scanned past.

A couple of nights later at prayer meeting, I was approached by a former workmate and church member who said she was initially shocked to see my name in the obituaries. She hadn’t gotten a prayer call from the church. Stopping, she did notice the photograph and middle initial didn’t seem right. When she began to read the article beneath the photograph she breathed a sigh of relief. We both smiled at the near miss.

Now comes the coincidence. Wednesday evening I built a small fire in my basement wood burner. The weather forecast had been for wind chill temperatures in the morning, so I thought I’d ease the burden of my oil heater. About three a.m. Thursday morning my cat Willow came to the side of my recliner where I’d fallen asleep. She was meowing. Usually she’ll jump onto my lap until she decides to explore elsewhere in the house, but not so. She finally did jump onto my lap, but didn’t settle down like she normally does. I was about to go back to sleep when I hear “Beep-beep-beep.” I pushed Willow off my lap. It was either the smoke or the carbon monoxide detector. I sometimes get a low battery alarm, but this was different. I hurried to my computer room where the monitors are kept. I snapped on the light and saw some smoke in the air and hurried to the basement.

The last time I cleaned the chimney and furnace pipe, I must not have secured the pipe completely. It had separated. Smoke and carbon monoxide was spilling out from the opening and was filling my cellar. Pushing the pipe back together, I secured it and opened the garage door to air out the basement. Then I went back upstairs to silence the alarm and turn on the bathroom fan to pull the fumes out of the house. Last evening I still had a bit of a headache, but at least the Tribune Review doesn’t have a matching name for their obituary list…yet.

P.S. Willow got a few extra treats yesterday.