“I’d like to close this account please, the account holder had died.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t make any changes without speaking with the account holder. Can you pop her on the phone.”
“Erm… she’s dead?”
“Just ask her to give us a call back.”
“I mean, I can try, but she’s dead.”
“When will she be back?”
Hi, I’m Lottie.
I’m a writer, journalist etc etc - one of those ‘better on paper’ types. I’ve written for titles like The Guardian, Grazia, Red, Cosmo and I’m in the (very long) process of writing a book, much like everyone else you know.
In 2013, my mum died very suddenly. During the dark, surreal weeks that followed, my brother and cleared out her house and had a number of very frustrating but also quite funny conversations with call operators who were determined that the account holder, despite being dead, needed to call them back before they could close the account.
We also found a list on her laptop entitled ‘Bucket List’. She had just taken early retirement and had a whole lot of plans. Probably the most difficult thing I had to do (and that’s saying something) was read through that list and see that only one thing had been ticked off.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to look at that list. But I’ve decided that 2026 is the year I’m going to open it up again. Not just that, I’m going to do all the things she never got the chance to do.
This Substack is a place for me to write about where the list takes me, along with some general musings about life, love and grief. I promise it’ll be funnier than it sounds.
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