Poor Sherry. If only she knew her friends have been mistaking my daughter for her. Perhaps it was carelessness on her part when she canceled her phone number. Perhaps it was a mistake by the phone company. In either case, she's not getting her messages.

It started when I first handed the cell phone to my daughter; and it didn't take long to notice that a case of mistaken identity was in progress.

The first call was from Vanessa, a college friend of Sherry's who repeatedly left voice-mail messages for Sherry and texted her to invite her to happy hour -- where she could support breast cancer foundations as she ruins her liver. My daughter (who is well underage for drinking parties) texted Vanessa back, saying: "This isn't Sherry's phone. I'm 10 years old, and my mom won't let me drink."

Vanessa was cool about it, replying that she was sorry, and that "you have a smart mom." (Something we already knew!) But she apparently never reported the incident to Sherry, because the calls for her keep rolling in -- from friends and family alike.

My daughter hasn't been shaken by it -- and isn't even annoyed. Instead, she feels like she has a new friend -- and her very own Peyton Place that she can join whenever she puts the phone to her ear.

This week, the situation got more acute as my wife walked in the door only to have my daughter announce, "Guess where Sherry's going? Las Vegas!" We're not sure whether it's a permanent move, but we do know Sherry is loved, because her friend, Becky, told her so in another voice-mail message. We're also not sure why Becky said she'd miss Sherry, because if they had communicated recently, Becky must know Sherry's new phone number.

Sherry is even keeping her family in the dark about her new phone number. We received a few calls from her dad and mom, and our response to Aunt Sylvia: "Thanks for the good luck wishes, but you'd probably be better served giving them to Sherry -- if you can catch her before she leaves for Las Vegas."

Long gone are the days that you keep a single phone number for life -- although many people try. Yesterday I called an Ohio man's cell phone that has a Boston area code because although he moved to Ohio several years ago, he hasn't changed his number.

It's not unusual for a household to have five telephone numbers; for businesspeople to list two to five numbers on their business cards; and for college students to abandon their college phone systems in favor of their own cell phones. But despite the plethora of numbers available to us, there is still no excuse to abandon your family and friends as you abandon your phone number.

When you move, you usually can ask to bring the number with you. It certainly can be done if you move from a traditional POTS (plain ol' telephone service) number to a cell phone (because it's the law). Or if you want a new number, you can move the old number to a cheap IP telephone service that does call forwarding.

I can't believe Sherry abandoned her number because of crank calls, because we haven't received any crank calls meant for her. So we can only assume that she is either abandoning her family and friends -- or she simply didn't pay attention to the details.

Sherry, whoever you are, if you read this, please come back. Your family and friends miss you -- and we really want them to stop calling us.