How to break sad news!!!!

@kwenge (2487)
Kenya
April 18, 2008 9:16am CST
At dawn the telephone rings. "Hello, Mr. Johnson? This is Peter, your country house caretaker" "Ah yes, Peter. What can I do for you? Is there a problem?" "Um, I'm just calling to advise you, sir, that your parrot died" "My parrot? Dead? The one that won the competition?" "That's the one." "Darn! That's such a pity! I spent a small fortune on that bird. Oh...what did he die from?" "From eating rotten meat." "Rotten meat? Who was so mean as to give him meat?" "Nobody. He ate the meat of one of the dead horses." "Dead horse? What dead horse, Peter?" "Those pure breed ones that you had, sir. They died from all that work of pulling the water cart." "Are you insane? What water cart?" "The one we used to put out the fire." "Good Lord! What fire are you talking about, man?" "The one at your house! A candle fell and then the curtain caught on fire." "What the.....!!! But there's electricity at the house!!!! What was the candle for???" "For the funeral." "WHAT BLOODY FUNERAL Peter???!!!!!" "Your mother's! She showed up one night out of the blue and I thought she was a thief, so I shot her Mr. Johnson is currently in I.C.U and Peter is assisting the police with investigations.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
22 Apr 08
Hi kwenge, your lengthy dialogue is really interesting. I agree that it is wise to break a sad news in graded steps so as to make it less harmful to the listener. Yep, Peter was wise enough to put the bad news in this way so that Mr Johnson won’t get agitated so much after hearing the sad news of his mother, otherwise he might have lain in the coffin and not in the ICU instead. Thanks for sharing this with us here. Happy posting and bye ...
@kwenge (2487)
• Kenya
14 May 08
Hi Ikbooi, Thanks abunch for your response. Breaking news this way.........needs a heart. Sorry for late response. I have been away for some time. Hapy posting.
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
23 Jul 08
Hi kwenge, you are most welcome. Late response is normal here, as we always have other business to attend. Here I am also late to express my gratitude to you for giving me the best response. Anyway I still enjoy reading this interesting dialog. The bad news was so skillfully and sympathetically presented to make the listener to feel less impact and could accept the socking news with lesser hurt. posting and have a nice day.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
14 Sep 08
That is too funny but at the same time awful. That is a mess and it went from one extreme to the other. I would hate to be in Mr. Johnson's shoes right now. what a mess?