My husband and my sons have each experienced a weird number of strange occurrences where paper and their names are concerned. I am not sure exactly who it started with. My first son, M, says it started with my husband’s father not having a middle name and so “none” was entered where his middle name was supposed to go when he joined the navy.
Personally I think it was something else. When my husband was born his parents argued fiercely about whether to name him after his grandfather, so he would be Henry B. Estes II. His mother wanted to name him Michael something. As a result of their argument my husband’s name on the birth certificate was ” Boy Estes.” They never resolved the name decision on paper.
Fast forward eighteen years when my husband enrolled in the ROTC at the local university. The only birth certificate with his birth date was for ‘Boy Estes.” So he had to get that resolved before enrollment could continue.
I don’t recall any name and paper problems before I dated him which was at least three years before he went to college. I wasn’t there with him in college, so I don’t know what happened there as far as the paper curse.
Fast forward to the early years of our marriage. Multiple times I remember our checks, paper work of various kinds, and on multiple occasions coming to us with his name as Harry B. Estes II, Henry B. Esteves, Henry B. Estee II, Henry B. Estees and probably a few others that I don’t recall now forty years later.
But there was one error that I do remember after he completed the research and writing of his dissertation. My husband was teaching in a small junior college in Newton, Mississippi. He had carefully sent his dissertation on a floppy disc to his sister. His sister, being a legal secretary gladly helped him by typing all of the information on paper to be sent for his dissertation defense before his board of educators.
Well two days before it was due, we called the delivery company to track the formal format of his dissertation. Much to his horror it had been sent to Newton, Massachusetts! Since he had classes to attend I flew home while his sister printed another dissertation from the floppy disc. I made it back just in time for us to drive to the school to hand it in the next day.
Our oldest son, M, has also been saddled with his father’s paper curse. The first evidence of the curse that I remember was a call from M from college. He was worried and upset because the school had expelled him for drinking under age when he was well over 22 years old! The drinking limit was 21. So my husband called the dean of the school and discovered the problem. They had copied our son’s birth date incorrectly!! (1984 instead of 1983!) Things were straightened out and M resumed his status as a student.
Advancing to a more recent paper curse event from a few years ago, M moved in with his girlfriend a year before they planned to marry the next fall. Her insurance covered him since they were in a relationship and had been living together for a year.
More than a year after he moved in and they were married. One day C, his wife, discovered that M was no longer covered under her health insurance from her place of employment. So C called the insurance company to discover the problem.
Soon M heard C, say over the phone quite vehemently, “Well I think I would know if I had had a baby two months ago!” M was in the other room and grinned, knowing “IT” was coming. His wife stormed into the room and told M, “Your stupid paper curse has done it again!” The insurance company had somehow stated that she had a baby two months ago. Since the insurance was only being paid to cover two family members, they had dropped M to cover the nonexistent baby!
After resolving this episode of the paper curse, things were going smoothly….until a few last weeks later! Many years ago my husband cosigned with M for a savings account to help pay for M’s education. Although my husband died eight years before these events, my son left his father’s name on the account.
Eventually he decided it was best to remove his father’s name from the account. So M took a copy of his father’s death certificate to the bank so only his name would be on the account. Although M had been making deposits and withdrawals for three weeks, suddenly M was unable to access his savings account. Since I could access the account for him as a third party, I reassured him that it was still there and in tact. So M and C went to the bank to figure out what had happened.
The bank had dropped M’s name from his account instead of his deceased father’s name!! The bank manager was called in to resolve this episode of the paper curse. The manager was appalled and said he had never seen anything like this happen before! The problem was resolved but M was more than a little anxious about this confusion and the potential confusion since they were purchasing a house!
There is one more son to tell about. D had been like a second son to me and a brother to M for many years. My husband and I did a lot to help D and help him decide about his life and future. D married a wonderful woman, C, and they had been married for over 12 years when the next incident happened.
My husband died in 2009. At his funeral, I asked M if he would like for me to adopt D. He was pleased with the idea but felt it inappropriate while D’s parents were still alive. By the end of several years later both of D’s divorced parents had died. So I decided to start the proceedings to adopt D.
It appears that he may be not be immune to the paper curse. After filling out forms and paying the fees for his adoption I received formal notification of the adoption sent for correction before the changed birth certificate was printed: Name: DLP, (male name), Sex: FEMALE was being adopted!
I knew M would love this! I called and told M. He laughed hysterically and called D and told him he was definitely an Estes! The paper curse affected him too!
Now we will have to sit tight and see whether the paper curse affects D and C’s sons, L and F!!
Yikes!! That’s a whole bunch of mixups! Weird and interesting…
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Thanks. I didn’t know what else to call it. Not sure if it is an actual curse but it is inconvenient for them at times
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That is definitely a curse. Too many incidences in one family. It does make a funny story though.
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I am thankful that with my sons it is taken with a sense of humor at least most of the time. LOL
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