Miss Jones, supervisor of the Installment Payment Division in Pacific Mutual's Claims Department, wasn't surprised at receiving a long distance telephone call from Mrs. Winslow. Only the purpose of the call surprised her.

Mrs. Winslow was calling from her home in Mississippi to invite Miss Jones to her son's wedding. Miss Jones had never met neither her caller nor her caller's sons—but she had known them for years.

Mrs. Winslow's husband had died fifteen years earlier, leaving his family the proceeds of a carefully constructed Pacific Mutual insurance program. These proceeds, paid in monthly installments, had been sufficient to enable the widow to raise and educate the two boys.

For fifteen years, Mrs. Winslow looked upon Miss Jones as the repository of all insurance wisdom, and frequently wrote to ask her advice on matters connected with her income. To her, the Claims Department was very real, very human, and very personal. Over the years it seemed perfectly natural to keep her friend posted on the family's progress. Miss Jones "watched" the boys grow, and rejoiced in their successes in high school and at college.

In fact, as Mrs. Winslow expressed it in her wedding invitation: "I want you to come because you helped raise my sons!”