Hutch to Hutch

I spoke to my mother today. On the phone. She is rarely at home, and when she is, I am away. So we hardly meet. But the telephone, and now, the mobile telephone, have still remained poor substitutes.
She couldn't hear and I couldn't speak. If we were together, words would not be required for a conversation.
All I was trying to tell her was that I missed her and needed her. But she couldn't hear my silences.

She kept thinking it was a technical problem.