A U.K. family that had buried their deceased grandmother's cell phone along with her remains was jolted when they started receiving comforting text messages from the device, seemingly from beyond the grave.
We've all heard stories or know of people who bury a special item or object along with their deceased loved one. It could be flowers, a card or note expressing the griever's love and sadness at losing their beloved, or a special object that meant something to the departed, such as a favorite photograph or piece of jewelry.
Welcome to the technology age. The U.K. family of Leslie Emerson buried their grandmother, who lost her life to cancer at age 59 in 2011, with her favorite object -- her cell phone. "Obviously, we know that Nan wasn't going to ever reply, it was just something we did as a comfort for ourselves because she loved to text," Leslie's granddaughter Sherri Emerson, 22, explained.
As part of her grieving process, Sherri continued to send text messages to her beloved grandmother even after she was buried, and she was shocked when, incredibly, she actually received a reply. "I'm watching over you, you'll get through this, you'll be alright," the text stated. When Sheri asked who she was speaking with, another text came through stating: "I'm watching over you and it's all going to get better. Just push through."
"When the reply came through at lunchtime the following day I felt sick. Crazy stuff was flashing through my mind like 'Is she still alive?' " Miss Emerson recalls. "I started getting horrible visions that someone might have dug up her grave and taken her phone, my mind was full of all sorts of really unpleasant possibilities."
The mystery was solved when it turned out that the grandmother's number had actually been reallocated to another user by her former service provider, O2. "The person who was texting me was apologetic when we actually rang the number and said he thought his friends had been winding him up," Sheri explained.
But Leslie's son Graham is still angry at the phone company, who he claims promised him the number would permanently remain his mother's and not be provided to another user. "After my mam died I rang O2 and said can I pay to ensure they did not use the number. They said there was no need as they would disconnect it and it would be hers. We are a big family of texters, if we ever fell out or had something to say, we'd always just send a message, that's why we buried her with her phone."
"To think someone else now has our mam's number is just awful, we can't believe O2 has done this", Graham complained. "I can't bear to visit mum's graveside. For me that was a way to still feel connected to her."
O2 stated that its policy is to reuse numbers, and that the family should have been alerted to this. Nevertheless, the company is now taking steps to try and retrieve the number for Leslie's family so that it can remain their grandmother's for all eternity.
