Patty Petty
12-01-2007, 08:49 PM
By JEFF REINITZ, Courier Staff Writer
IOWA CITY --- For more than four hours, Vern Reddout and his wife, Edie, thought their grandson was dead.
The Reddouts, of Iowa City, got a phone call from a relative who had spotted the teenager's obituary in The Courier Dec. 30 and wanted to know more.
"My wife's cousin in Independence gave us a call to find out some more information, and that was the first we heard about it," said Vern Reddout.
The obituary told of a Dec. 24 death and services in Osage.
Ultimately it turned out that the grandson was alive. The mother said it was a case of miscommunication after she jokingly told her boyfriend the teen was sick and had died.
But in the hours after hearing of the obituary, Vern and Edie Reddout made a flurry of unanswered phone calls and found even more unanswered questions.
Vern Reddout hopes news of the fake obituary and his ordeal will inspire people to be closer to their families and keep in touch with their relatives.
He said he touches base with his daughter, the boy's mother, only a few times a year, so hearing about the obituary threw him for a loop.
"We didn't know what to think. We got worried something major was going on," he said.
The uncertainty and inability to find anyone who knew what was happened was spooky, he said, but things got scary when they realized the mother's phone number had been disconnected.
The Reddouts learned their grandson was alive when they eventually reached the boy's other grandmother, who lives in Waterloo.
"She said it's not true, because he's sitting here," Vern Reddout said. "It was such a relaxation once that news got to us. It was like we were holding our breath for a long time and could breathe again."
That's pretty messed up. I would NEVER think to do something so horrible like that to not go to work. I have called myself in sick when I wasn't.. and I always feel guilty about that even thinking "now I probably will get sick" because I lied. I would NEVER fake a family members death.. that's just awful. I wouldn't even say I was calling out because a family member was sick (and they weren't). Myself, yeah... a family member, no.
IOWA CITY --- For more than four hours, Vern Reddout and his wife, Edie, thought their grandson was dead.
The Reddouts, of Iowa City, got a phone call from a relative who had spotted the teenager's obituary in The Courier Dec. 30 and wanted to know more.
"My wife's cousin in Independence gave us a call to find out some more information, and that was the first we heard about it," said Vern Reddout.
The obituary told of a Dec. 24 death and services in Osage.
Ultimately it turned out that the grandson was alive. The mother said it was a case of miscommunication after she jokingly told her boyfriend the teen was sick and had died.
But in the hours after hearing of the obituary, Vern and Edie Reddout made a flurry of unanswered phone calls and found even more unanswered questions.
Vern Reddout hopes news of the fake obituary and his ordeal will inspire people to be closer to their families and keep in touch with their relatives.
He said he touches base with his daughter, the boy's mother, only a few times a year, so hearing about the obituary threw him for a loop.
"We didn't know what to think. We got worried something major was going on," he said.
The uncertainty and inability to find anyone who knew what was happened was spooky, he said, but things got scary when they realized the mother's phone number had been disconnected.
The Reddouts learned their grandson was alive when they eventually reached the boy's other grandmother, who lives in Waterloo.
"She said it's not true, because he's sitting here," Vern Reddout said. "It was such a relaxation once that news got to us. It was like we were holding our breath for a long time and could breathe again."
That's pretty messed up. I would NEVER think to do something so horrible like that to not go to work. I have called myself in sick when I wasn't.. and I always feel guilty about that even thinking "now I probably will get sick" because I lied. I would NEVER fake a family members death.. that's just awful. I wouldn't even say I was calling out because a family member was sick (and they weren't). Myself, yeah... a family member, no.