Please wait... A Cautionary Tale
Everyone knows the horror stories that go round the internet about online relationships – the OMG OMG OMG! sort. Well this is a true story. I’ve changed some of the details so I don’t get my ass sued or embarrass those nearest and dearest to me.
Eddie, for want of a better name, was a lonely misfit. His family had had enough of him. He was antisocial, badly behaved and hurt all those who tried to help him. And he had a debilitating medical condition which was not helped by his insistence on drinking copious amounts of beer. In fact Eddie had to have dialysis twice a week for his rapidly failing kidneys.
At the time our story starts Eddie had one supporter, his Aunt, Deb, who let him stay at her place and tried to take care of him. She even considered seriously donating a kidney, as she didn’t realise how much he was disobeying doctors orders. She was loyal only to a certain point and when he started to have an online relationship and the phone bill turned to thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks – well “it’s time to go – Eddie”.
The phone bill was a very sore point and as a matter of fact the $2,500 remains unpaid to this day. A matter causing no end of credit grief to Aunt Deb.
He took off in a hurry at the beginning of September, and Aunt Deb pursued him to the North Island, to try and get some payment arrangement for the phone bill. Her phone had been cut off and it had all happened so suddenly that she hadn’t realised what was happening with him. That the hours in his room on the computer and phone calls in the wee small hours to America could only mean one thing. Cyber love.
She tracked him down at the airport – amazing - and I wouldn’t have believed it except that I was there. I saw his pasty grey face gaping in shock as Aunt Deb leapt out at him as he queued for the checkout counter.
It did her no good and he boarded the plane and was gone. We could only surmise that the love interest in the States had paid for him to go over. Did she have any idea what she was getting herself into? Aunt Deb had gleaned that she was an older woman, but apart from that nothing else was known.
At this point his immediate family started to get concerned, a little late in my humble opinion. He had contacted them as he had no money and no medical insurance. It was too late, however, as without the dialysis he lasted about 5 days. He died. Whether this was some elaborate suicide was just conjecture. The horror must surely be for the woman who paid for Eddie to go over for the cyber-liaison.
As an added inconvenience for Eddies family who had to fly his body back, was the world shattering events of the 11th September which meant that he couldn’t be flown back until order was restored to the airlines, And as we recall that took quite some time.
Everyone knows the horror stories that go round the internet about online relationships – the OMG OMG OMG! sort. Well this is a true story. I’ve changed some of the details so I don’t get my ass sued or embarrass those nearest and dearest to me.
Eddie, for want of a better name, was a lonely misfit. His family had had enough of him. He was antisocial, badly behaved and hurt all those who tried to help him. And he had a debilitating medical condition which was not helped by his insistence on drinking copious amounts of beer. In fact Eddie had to have dialysis twice a week for his rapidly failing kidneys.
At the time our story starts Eddie had one supporter, his Aunt, Deb, who let him stay at her place and tried to take care of him. She even considered seriously donating a kidney, as she didn’t realise how much he was disobeying doctors orders. She was loyal only to a certain point and when he started to have an online relationship and the phone bill turned to thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks – well “it’s time to go – Eddie”.
The phone bill was a very sore point and as a matter of fact the $2,500 remains unpaid to this day. A matter causing no end of credit grief to Aunt Deb.
He took off in a hurry at the beginning of September, and Aunt Deb pursued him to the North Island, to try and get some payment arrangement for the phone bill. Her phone had been cut off and it had all happened so suddenly that she hadn’t realised what was happening with him. That the hours in his room on the computer and phone calls in the wee small hours to America could only mean one thing. Cyber love.
She tracked him down at the airport – amazing - and I wouldn’t have believed it except that I was there. I saw his pasty grey face gaping in shock as Aunt Deb leapt out at him as he queued for the checkout counter.
It did her no good and he boarded the plane and was gone. We could only surmise that the love interest in the States had paid for him to go over. Did she have any idea what she was getting herself into? Aunt Deb had gleaned that she was an older woman, but apart from that nothing else was known.
At this point his immediate family started to get concerned, a little late in my humble opinion. He had contacted them as he had no money and no medical insurance. It was too late, however, as without the dialysis he lasted about 5 days. He died. Whether this was some elaborate suicide was just conjecture. The horror must surely be for the woman who paid for Eddie to go over for the cyber-liaison.
As an added inconvenience for Eddies family who had to fly his body back, was the world shattering events of the 11th September which meant that he couldn’t be flown back until order was restored to the airlines, And as we recall that took quite some time.