Small WTF?

[Ghel]

This customer is the beneficiary on his mother's IRA. I mailed him the form to do his annual withdrawal from the IRA. He signed the form and returned it in an envelope with his mother's name on the return address label. She's been dead for six years. And she never lived with him, so it can't even be leftover return address labels that she had while alive.

I just don't get it.

[wordgirl]

This customer is the beneficiary on his mother's IRA. I mailed him the form to do his annual withdrawal from the IRA. He signed the form and returned it in an envelope with his mother's name on the return address label. She's been dead for six years. And she never lived with him, so it can't even be leftover return address labels that she had while alive.

I just don't get it.

My bro has address labels with mom's name and his address. Most of her bills and bank statements come to his house now, otherwise, they'd end up in the toaster oven, the dog bed, her bowling bag ... Could that be it? He was handling all her affairs before she died? (And yeah, my bro is just cheap enough to keep using the address labels after she dies.)

[workerbee222]

Wait. A label with a mailing address that's no longer valid? But, someone else lives at 123 Sesame Street or has been assigned P.O. Box 578 in Tinytown... I don't understand...why? So he doesn't throw them away?

[Ghel]

He was handling all her affairs before she died?

Yeah, and I could kind of see making labels saying "estate of", but just her name seems weird.

Wait. A label with a mailing address that's no longer valid?

The labels have his address, so it's a valid address. But she never lived there.

[wordgirl]

Yeah, and I could kind of see making labels saying "estate of", but just her name seems weird.

Depending on how long he handled her affairs (and was rerouting mail to his address) and how charitable she was, he might have a huge stockpile. My bro didn't pay for any of the labels he has with mom's name/his address ... they were all gimmes from the charities.

Also, even after six years grief may play a role. My dad's voice stayed on the voicemail at their house for almost two years after he died. Sometimes I would call it (and so did my siblings) when we knew nobody was home. When a lightning strike killed that phone system, both my mom and I broke down sobbing. (Fortunately my crafty brother had recorded it and now we all have it on an mp3.) It could be that the simple act of ordering "Estate of" labels is too upsetting.

Still silly, of course, and a little bit hinky, but there are possible explanations.

[WishfulSpirit]

Maybe he's using Addressee names to sort mail? Or maybe getting mail with his mom's name is comforting to him because it reminds him of her?

[KatherineB]

Maybe it's so he knows the letter will relate to his mother and it's important to deal with it right away.

[judecat]

There was once a state benefit agency that when mail came in for the agency, the mail clerk would not open the envelope, instead they would look up the name on the return address in order to put the case number and workers name on it for routing to one of the people who actually opened the mail. (1 general clerk for every 3 case workers) If the name on the return address was not the name of one of our clients, the mail got returned to sender. It was stupid, but that's they way they did it, until after 3 years or so, one of the general clerks volunteered to open all the mail with unknown return names. Even after this, there was no field in the computer (main frame) to put the person with power of attorney, or the adult child who was helping the client, or the estate of, so unless they started using the clients name on the return address, the mail still ended up on that one clerks desk every time -- never did get routed to the right person automatically.

[Minflick]

There's a scary process! One would think there were enough complaints to fix that? One would not hold her breath, however....