Even Robots are Kinder than My Mother

Whenever the phone rings I want to hide under my bed. Someone has died? Don't pick up. God forbid. I stopped answering my phone in 1978 back when I regularly received hate phone calls from my mother. I've never regretted disconnecting the cord. Usually the ringer is kept turned off. Now I mostly get messages from robots about asthma medicine and the occasional snow storm or tornado warning, even robots are kinder than my mother.