"Don't worry, nothing's wrong..."

You were never a phone person. No judgement at all is implied by that statement. You were never, ever not there if I needed you. You just didn't really like to talk on the phone, although you tended towards chattiness in long drives (see: story of your life) and sometimes used to call when you were driving somewhere far away.

But for some reason, when I lived in California, there was a period of time when you started calling regularly. I mean, I spoke with you a lot anyway, when I called the house, but this is when you started calling my mobile at least once or twice a week, for a period of maybe 6 or 8 months. 

Apparently, you started calling Amy at this time as well, because we talked about it as in - "why do you think Dad's calling all the time?" Not a complaint, just curious. We never did discover why. 

Anyway, because we didn't hear from you via phone all that often, we both thought that something was wrong every single time you called. Wait...that's my dad, that's unusual...hi dad, what's wrong? etc. 

So you started saying, whether I picked up or the voicemail did, "Hi Megs. It's Dad. Nothing's wrong. Just calling to say hello, I'm in the car on the way to court (or whatever) and I'll be in the car for 45 minutes. Give me a call." It became a habit, or rather, a long-running joke because you maintained that habit for years. 

Oddly enough, the night you went into the hospital, Mom called me (not unusual at all, although she has a habit of leaving stern-sounding voicemails) and when I answered, she told me: "there's nothing to be worried about, but Dad had to check into the hospital because his bloodwork came back and he has a high white blood cell count."

If only, right? If only that hadn't been something to worry about. It's pretty funny in retrospect that she used pretty much the exact same words you used to use. 

And along the same lines, Marc has started calling occasionally and leaving terse messages. The first messages I've had from him in years and years. So I get off the subway and hear: "Megan. It's Marc. Call me back right away." So I panic, call back, and he's all, oh, I'm in the Verizon store and had a question about your account. No rush, call me later."

Um, Marc, you need the memo about the right verbiage for non-urgent messages. 

Love, M