The cell phone lady

Last Sunday in church, just when Pastor was getting to the really good stuff in his sermon, a cell phone went off about three rows behind me. No big deal. It happens. We don’t make an announcement to ask folk to turn off their pagers and stuff and I understand how easy it is to forget that sort of thing, but what happened next was reprehensible: the woman answered and carried on a 10 minute conversation with her caller! Out loud! Making no attempt to even keep her voice down! Right after, “Hello,” she said, “I thought you were coming to church today.” I thought at first it might be an emergency, but then, apparently in answer to a question, she continued with what her plans were for the rest of the day: going to eat at Fernando’s, drop off one of the kids at a friend’s house, get some groceries. If the call had gone on much longer, I’m sure I could be ghost writing her autobiography! Those of us in her vicinity at first looked at each other in disbelief, then some of us had to suppress some giggles. A couple of Dana basketball players who were sitting in front of me turned around and looked straight at her, neither smiling nor disapproving, but I hoped their attention on her would alert her to the distraction she was making. Then one of them whipped out his phone and mimed a conversation. That didn’t even slow her down. She seemed to be quite literally in her own little world with no regard for where she was and who she might be bothering.
I’ve seen people like her in restaurants. They are ignoring the person or persons they are with and mentally they are with the person on the other end of the cell phone call. Thankfully, my husband is not one of them. If he were, his cell phone would end up sticking out of his nose as he thumbed a ride home.
I understand emergencies, both personal and business, and issues come up that need attention, but my goodness, in church?