Yesterday I awoke to a very strange phone call.  I heard Don say "Mark passed away in 2007".  Once or twice a year we get a call asking for Mark.  One of my favorites was from a health insurance company stating they had a good insurance rate for Mark.  There were many calls the first year so I equate any phone call asking for him as if it were Mark himself calling to tell his Dad and me hello.

After Don informed whomever he was speaking to that Mark had died, there was a short pause before I heard him say "I think I better let you speak to my wife."

When I answered the phone, there was a very kind   voice on the other end telling me that they wanted to get in touch with Mark.   They were a health care provider located in the South County area.  I explained again to her that Mark was our son and that he passed away in 2007.  She said "Well, we have a little problem......someone was here today using his Social Security number."

Now, I have spent the past week daydreaming that Markie was a character in that new TV show, "Resurrection." I have imagined all week what it would be like for him to come back here, what he would think of the changes, what he would think of his nephews, how happy he would be for so many of his friends.  I have been off work all week, so I had a lot of time to daydream.

For a split second...a very split second....I thought my daydreams were coming true.  Then, I snapped back to reality and realized that one of the things that Don and I try very hard to protect is Mark's identity.

Shortly after Mark died, I saw a 20/20 show where they explained that it is fairly common for criminals to scan death notices looking for young people who died young.  It seems the 18-30 age range is prime because these people have been adults and may have established some sort of paper trail.   I knew that Mark being 24, with a strong credit rating, never married, no children (as far as I know) and never been in jail (as far as I know!!)....would be a great choice.  The only thing keeping him safe is that there has only been one or two people with the same name.  Anyone can look up a deceased person's SSN on any geneaology site.

I asked the lady how this possible.  Who was trying to use Mark's Social Security number.  She couldn't tell me...HIPPA and all...but was concerned because when they entered this individual's SSN in their computer (they didn't have insurance).....Mark's name came up as already the holder of that number.  From what I could grasp....this person was still there...and it may be that they were needing to contact the authorities.

Instead, she asked me to verify Mark's SSN.  It took me a few minutes....I thought I knew his SSN...but went and looked up some old tax records.  I told her the number, and she asked if I had anything else to verify the number....so downstairs I went again and found a Golf Discount paystub....same number I had before.

It was then that she said that when Mark had been in there (I have no idea when that was) that whomever checked him in, transposed the last two digits.

What are the odds of that?   Someone going to a health care facility and then having the social security number that was incorrectly entered more than seven years ago.

It can't be anything other than Mark has a strange way of telling Don and me hello.

I give a lot of credit to the person who called.  She was very careful not to violate the privacy of the person who had come for help that day, was very concerned about the privacy of Mark, and was very concerned to make sure that Mark's record was corrected with the correct SSN....even though he wasn't ever going to come in again.

Then again, maybe Mark watched that TV show last week and he had been daydreaming too.