When I try to be nice....

I am one of those people who don't mind helping others if I can. But sometimes, I feel like I'm too nice and I end up paying for it. 

Last night, I had a strange number call my house. It was a South Carolina area code and I don't know anyone in South Carolina who would have my cell phone number. They called 3 times from 9:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. They didn't leave a message, but would just hang up when it went to voice mail and call back. 

I figured it was a wrong number and they just kept trying so I finally answered to see what was going on. It was a little old lady who was crying (you could tell it wasn't fake). I asked her who she was trying to call and she gave me her daughter and son-in-law's name and address and said they lived in Gatlinburg and she needed them and couldn't reach them. My number was one she had written down for them. 

Since this number is just two months old, I thought maybe it used to belong to them. I asked her if she wanted me to try to find their number in the phone book. She gave me their names and their address and asked me to look it up. Long story short, I found them and she asked if I could just call them and ask her daughter to call her that it was an emergency.

So, me being me, I did. The tearful lady had told me she was 80 years old and very upset and that she couldn't remember numbers. The daughter answered the phone and I explained what was going on. She thanked me profusely. She said her mother is 80 years old and gets confused real easy. She said she would call her right away. She thanked me for being so sweet to her Mom and for taking the time to help her. 

I felt like I had done my good deed for the day and put it out of my mind. Around 11:45 p.m. it started again with the little old lady calling my number by mistake. I was asleep so just looked at the number and figured when it went to voice mail she would realize and call the right number back, which the daughter was going to give her. 

Nope. She got voice mail, hung up and called back. Then she called back in 5 minutes. I finally just turned the phone off since I was going to bed. When I got up this morning, she had called 4 times during the night and never left any messages. 

It's things like this that make me realize why people sometimes don't want to be helpful with others. 

I don't even know if I can block a number from calling a cell phone or not.