The Burial Group chat

Last week, something that has left me a bit confused happened to me.

_{photo by Rafo Navasardyan}

I was on the phone, texting a guy who used to be my neighbor, when he brought it to my attention that a lady who used to have a shop down the street had asked him for my number. When he told me about it, I was a bit confused because I couldn't guess why she would need my number.

This was a lady who owned a dry cleaning store, and aside from the usual hellos and greetings, we weren't that close. But curiosity got the better of me, and I had given him the go-ahead to give her my number, hoping to find out from her what she required it for.

Fast forward to some few days later, and I discovered that I had been added to a group chat by a contact that wasn't saved on my phone. Further investigation on my end showed that the same dry cleaning lady had created a burial group and added me to it without even saying hi to me or asking for my consent.

Apparently, she had lost her mom and was in the middle of planning the burial, so she thought it would be a good idea to create a group for people to support her. Now, while I might understand her needing some sort of support, things like that are usually done in a way where you first make sure you and that person are friends and not just a random guy in the street who says hello to you occasionally, and then you go ahead to ask for their permission to be added to your group before proceeding to do so.

I mean, not to sound heartless, but if the burial arrangements were for someone we all knew, then it would make sense, but it was for her mother, a woman I didn't even know existed in the first place.

And what's even crazier was that I wasn't the only one she did that to, because I noticed a lot of people were asking questions about how they got added to the group and the reason for the group. I was hoping someone would leave the group so that I could leave too, but it's been more than a week now and no one has left.

As a matter of fact, contributions have started, and to be honest with you, I don't really think I will be contributing anything. Hopefully she comes to my DM to ask me why, and then we'd see where that conversation would lead.