When I speak "Call Thelma", watch comes back "Calling Thelma", and after a few seconds, it goes away

Hi there lakerpike75,

Are you able to successfully make calls on your paired iPhone or manually start calls on your Apple Watch that successfully connect in the Phone app? Your answer can help us determine what might be going on, which can help with next steps to take.

In the meantime, you can see if restarting your Apple Watch may help, as this will refresh the watchOS which can resolve unexpected issues. If needed, below shows how to do so:

How to restart your Apple Watch if you have watchOS 9

1. If your Apple Watch is charging, take it off the charger.

2. Press and hold the side button until you see the power button  in the upper-right corner of the display.

3. Tap the power button.

4. Drag the Power Off slider.

5. After your watch turns off, press and hold the side button again until you see the Apple logo.

Those steps, and steps for restarting an earlier watchOS version, can be found in this article: Restart your Apple Watch

We look forward to your reply.

Take care.