Everyone knows time flies, but I needed more information about when time dies. A product from RadioShack led me to believe they might have the answers…

Dear RadioShackers:

I wrote weeks ago and never heard back. It could be because my letter was sent to Mail Stop #CF3-311, but now I discovered Consumer Care is Mail Stop #CF4-216. Don’t Mail Stops forward to other Mail Stops at RadioShack? Or, did you receive it and just decide to ignore it? Either way, I have plenty of stamps, so I’ll try again…

I’ve got some questions about the RadioShack Talking Watch you sell. I recently went out with a couple and they shared an unusual story about this product. They had bought one for the husband’s elderly mother, and when her time was up, there was a funeral. During the ceremony, the watch was still on his mother’s wrist, and it started to talk. Apparently, even in death, time still ticks away.

If the owner of a RadioShack Talking Watch is buried wearing it, how long will the talking mechanism work for in a casket? Will people visiting the cemetery be able to hear it, even faintly, from a distance of 6 feet away underground? It would be terrible if one of the groundskeepers mistook it for a distress call from someone they thought might have unexpectedly awakened from a coma. Do you have any research that indicates if a person’s soul lives on after passing, that the sounds of a Talking Watch, which they loved while alive, would provide any comfort in the hereafter?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to reply.

RadioShack Corporation responded with:

Thanks for your letter. I apologize for the delay in responding to your letter.

We cannot provide any answers to your questions. The situation you describe is not one that we would evaluate our products under. The watch would continue to function until the battery power is depleted or the watch sustains damage causing it to be inoperable.

Final Thoughts: While RadioShack couldn’t provide answers to my questions, the information they did offer was very comforting in this need of time. Knowing the watch would continue to work until the battery power is depleted confirms that it too will eventually die, even after already having been summoned by a higher power for a greater purpose. I’m not sure how the watch could sustain damage in a coffin, but I suppose anything is possible in time. So, it is also fair to accept the reality that it will one day become inoperable, which is ironic because that’s exactly what happened medically with its owner as well.

If you feel a Talking Watch can benefit your life, see if you can dig one up at RadioShack. However, if you’re buried in thought about a product you or a loved one owns, you might find it enlightening to Write The Company.