Twisted

This is a rant and i'm pissed so this might come out random.

At the begining of this year my best friend was told he might live another year or so due to stomac cancer. I was floored he is in his mid 20s as am I. He spent some time in and out of the hospital for the next few months trying radiation and other stuff that seemed to almost kill him. Around Mar they told him that it was spreading and the treatments went working. He was a contracted employee and his heath benifits were limited so it cost him all his savings, his car and his contract, which he sold to a friend. Around this time I had an extra room in my house and offered it, free of charge. His friend was an azzhole and was to pay him a large sum up front and payments to help him get by(his other friend was never told about the cancer). This guy really screwed him over and only gave him around $100 a week.

Being my best friend I helped where I could but i'm not rich and this didn't help, but at the time I didn't care he was my best friend. over the last few months he has talked about being a burden and wanted to try to collect the contract money and go out of the states. Around this time he meet a girl online in europe, and spent a ton of time talking to he on iternet chat and when she would call him on his cell.

We spent this last weekend watching football and having beer and bbq. It was a ton of fun. It seemed like this was a goodbye party, before he left there was some comments made that made me feel that like he had stated before he would die somewhere where he didn't burden any of his friends. It was a hard weekend but a good one. Yesterday I dropped him off at the airport.

When I got home I found a $1000 phone bill in my mail box for thru 8/27. Like I said I'm not rich and this is going to be rought on me, and i'm not even sure this is the last of it, there was 2 more weeks after that bill. I'm so lost right now.. A horible mix of pissed and sad.

Ok done ranting for now I need a drink....

[andyfox]

You can't expect your friend to be acting his best rational self at a time like this.

If I were you, I'd call the phone company and tell them what happened. Tell them you'll settle up in full with them, but X dollars per week (whatever you can afford).

Then let it go. Too bad your friend didn't do the right thing, but it's understandable given his condition. But you did the right thing and that's more important.

[MuckerFish]

Sorry to hear the story-
Definitely contact your phone company and explain the situation to them. They all have programs in place to help with these kinds of situations. I doubt you'll get out of the bill all together, but they will likely set up a payment program of some sort for you. I'm a doctor and I deal with this kind of thing all the time for my patients. Pretty much every utility company has some kind of program set up for things like this. May be a little tricky since your friend is out of the country, but give it a try. Maybe you can organize some kind of fund raiser for your friend (beef and beer type of thing, whatever) and use the proceeds to help your friend out a bit, and some to help with the bill. Just an idea.
One final thing, definitely get your friend hooked up with a local hospice program. They can be the best thing for a patient going through this type of situation. Many of them will help without regards to a patients ability to pay, and the social services component will frequently help with medical assistance applications, etc. Here are some links that may be helpful. Hospice (http://www.abhpm.org/gfxc_15.aspx)

Call the phone company and try and work out a payment plan.

Otherwise, just suck it up. $1000 is not a lot of money in the long run - and if his ability to talk to someone brought him some comfort, then it is money well-spent.

Consider it a charitable donation.

You are a good man for trying to do what you could for your friend.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone and talked this girl into changing the bill to $30! w00t! I was ready to pay the bill over the next few months, but I'll take this. I also got a call from my buddy telling me his biz partner is dropping $1500 to buy a ticket and come see him and his GF in London. Then comes the decision to take him up on te offer to fly me out or send him the money and tell him to use it as a rainy day fund....

Thanks for the replies guys!