"calling" hours?

Let me preface this by saying that this is a hard to believe, but tragically true, story. It happened to a good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless... not necessarily for his protection, but because of the upsetting nature of the events of this story. Although this story has an element of humor, it is much more tragic than humorous. I am a bit ashamed to admit that my first reaction to hearing it was laughter, but I was quickly sobered and saddened by the tragic ending, and my friend has been deeply affected by his involvement.

So, the other day, my friend was enjoying the springtime weather and strolling around his property, which has frontage on a fairly busy road, when he happened upon a cell phone near the ditch in his front yard. Since it hadn't rained for a few days, the cell phone was operational, and he took it in the house with the intention of trying to contact its rightful owner. It took him a few days to get back to it, but he searched the phone's memory for a number of a significant person to notify about the lost phone. He selected a number that was indicated "in case of emergency" and appeared to be the wife of the phone's owner. My Good Samaritan friend dialed the number...

A man took the call. My friend quickly learned that the man who took the call was standing beside the lost phone owner's very distraught widow... who was standing beside the casket of her deceased husband (the phone's owner)... who's name and number had just appeared on the caller ID of her ringing cell phone. (Cue the Twilight Zone theme music... doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo...) Ironically, my friend gave new meaning to "calling hours", by innocently using the phone of the deceased to unknowingly call his widow... while she was at her husband's calling hours!

Although the irony of the story itself may have an element of humor, the tragedy lies in what my friend then learned and pieced together. It seems the phone was likely not lost, but discarded. The man who owned the phone apparently made a decision and tossed the phone to avoid being dissuaded from what he was about to do. Sadly, the man took his life. The haunting part for my friend, who is a father of young children, is that the photo on the phone's screen is that of a woman and three little girls... most likely a widow and her fatherless daughters.