Will try to keep this brief. My Dad died a couple of months back and as were hsi wishes, we did not have a funeral per se. We (my sibling and I) arranged to hire a village hall in an area he enjoyed visiting, and invite family and friends.
One of these was a man whose late wife was friendly with my late mother. Sort of an acquaintance by default.
Sent him an invite and he called to tell me he'd be coming with his new partner. He phoned me on my mobile when I was out and reception was bad. I asked him if I could email him as the address I had put on the invite was wrong. He gave me an email address along the lines of HisNameWifesName@emailprovider. co.uk
I duly sent an email to him that evening with the correct address, an apology for confusion and a 'see you there' type note.
A few days later I got an email from him asking something about food, to which I replied, and said 'see you on X date'.
On the day itself, I was feeling quite upset and stressed. Whilst I was busy trying to get food and drinks sorted out (and trying to get people to get out of the kitchen and into the hall), he phoned, but I was unable to get to the phone in time. When I checked my voicemail he said he was at the address on the invite.
I was too flustered and upset to deal with him at the time, as I was gearing myself up to making a speech, and asked my DH to phone him back and give directions. (Disclaimer - I have no sense of direction at all and would have had to get DH to speak to him anyway).
DH said all was well, he'd explained route and the family friend was en route.
He never showed up.
I dont' have a phone number so a few days after the event when I felt more 'grounded' I checked through my emails and discovered that the email address I'd sent to originally was not the same one he'd used when contacting me. Not wildly different, but it had their house number in it (so NameNameNumber@...).
Realising this, I fired off an email immediately saying that I was sorry for the confusion and not seeing him, that the email address I'd had was different from what I thought he'd told me, but because his mail came almost as a reply to what I'd sent, I did not think to check. I said I hoped he'd not been inconvenienced etc.
I haven't heard anything at all! I'm still feeling quite upset over two weeks later.
Please reassure me that I'm just being oversensitive.