Text from the grave

dxhound2005

Maybe it's just me, but I was disturbed by the the idea of a family burying a mobile phone with their dearly departed and then sending her texts to the grave for years after. They got a bit of a shock when she sent a text back. Only of course it was a mistake. Would anyone here think it is a good idea either for when their own time comes, or for a dead relative?

http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2014-10-16/south-shields-family-shocked-by-texts-from-grandmothers-grave/

The family, who buried the 59-year old with some of her favourite possessions, including her phone, had been sending messages to her for comfort.

goz83

Intersting what shoite makes the papers. Would you be happy with a dead persons phone number? I think Inwould change it, if not to just avoid texts from the relatives of the dead person, god rest them.

iDave

How does a phone in a coffin stay charged?

keith16

iDave wrote: »

How does a phone in a coffin stay charged?

Nokia.

Summer wind

Can you imagine the shocked to ****e feeling when they got the text. I would have had a heart attack. Nobody should have to go through that.

Miss Demeanour

Its worse when someone dies and you get a call asking to speak to them......

Nodster

Miss Demeanour wrote: »

Its worse when someone dies and you get a call asking to speak to them......

That's always difficult, after my former boss passed away we still got many calls for him in the weeks that followed. We just replied "I'm sorry but he's not available"

Chucken

keith16 wrote: »

Nokia.

3310

ColeTrain

Nodster wrote: »

That's always difficult, after my former boss passed away we still got many calls for him in the weeks that followed. We just replied "I'm sorry but he's not available"

You should have said he was upstairs and was resting.

super_furry

Whatever brings you comfort.

SkyBlueClouds

It's common knowledge after a certain period of inactivity, numbers become invalid and are disconnected from the networks for use by other customers.

Tbh, I'm not surprised they got a text reply after all that time. The number was bound to have been placed into a 'pool' for allocation on to new customers.

Molester Stallone II

The Nokia 3310.will still be there 100's of years after she's wormfood

kneemos

It's not a bad idea in fairness.Kinda cute.

whupdedo

Nodster wrote: »

That's always difficult, after my former boss passed away we still got many calls for him in the weeks that followed. We just replied "I'm sorry but he's not available"

ColeTrain wrote: »

You should have said he was upstairs and was resting.

No, actually what you should have said was " he's dead "

LuckyLloyd

SkyBlueClouds wrote: »

It's common knowledge after a certain period of inactivity, numbers become invalid and are disconnected from the networks for use by other customers.

Tbh, I'm not surprised they got a text reply after all that time. The number was bound to have been placed into a 'pool' for allocation on to new customers.

Have to say, I didn't know this!

nlgbbbblth

Nodster wrote: »

That's always difficult, after my former boss passed away we still got many calls for him in the weeks that followed. We just replied "I'm sorry but he's not available"

So what happened when those people rang again looking for him?

goz83

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

So what happened when those people rang again looking for him?

He's still not available. In fact, he says he hates your guts

realweirdo

I hope the woman in the grave was on billpay. Prepay usually runs out after a month.

anncoates

dxhound2005 wrote: »

They got a bit of a shock when she sent a text back. Only of course it was a mistake.

I know it sounds terrible but did anybody else snigger at this before chastising themselves mentally?

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I read this article earlier and it seems like they're just looking for compensation. "We're a big texting family. When we fall out or whatever, we send a message".

Needs a tall glass of "stfu".

branie2

I read about it in the Daily Mail

efb

I read it on the Beeb it was so stupid and contrived. You never own the number the company does. And numbers are recycled.
I smell a compo claim

The Diabolical Monocle

Wot u doin 4 Halloween wkend.

The One Who Knocks

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Maybe it's just me, but I was disturbed by the the idea of a family burying a mobile phone with their dearly departed and then sending her texts to the grave for years after. They got a bit of a shock when she sent a text back. Only of course it was a mistake. Would anyone here think it is a good idea either for when their own time comes, or for a dead relative?

http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2014-10-16/south-shields-family-shocked-by-texts-from-grandmothers-grave/

The family, who buried the 59-year old with some of her favourite possessions, including her phone, had been sending messages to her for comfort.

Nodster wrote: »

That's always difficult, after my former boss passed away we still got many calls for him in the weeks that followed. We just replied "I'm sorry but he's not available"

Okay now I'm getting deja vu .. Didn't this exact same thing happen a few years(?) back. I even remember reading a thread about it with a very similar response.

smash

This happened a few years ago too. The father was on joe Duffy or something giving out that the mobile network had given all his daughters contacts to some randomer. Obviously numbers are recycled and the new owner kept receiving weird messages so was telling people to feck off. Nothing to do with giving away numbers.

The One Who Knocks

smash wrote: »

This happened a few years ago too. The father was on joe Duffy or something giving out that the mobile network had given all his daughters contacts to some randomer. Obviously numbers are recycled and the new owner kept receiving weird messages so was telling people to feck off. Nothing to do with giving away numbers.

Yeah I knew that I had heard the same story before.

The Th!ng

feargale

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

So what happened when those people rang again looking for him?

Tell them he's even less available than he was last time.

Rough Sleeper

kneemos wrote: »

It's not a bad idea in fairness.Kinda cute.

Cute like stuffing your deceased infant and keeping around the house as a reminder of better times.

It's ****ing ghastly is what it is.

_Brian

Numbers get reused...

I know after my dad's death 7 years ago his phone was kept at home.. But the number has now bee reassigned to someone else, how do I know ?? Turns out my sister used to ring it when she was feeling down, then one day someone answered !! Bit of a shock..

Lyger

Yep, numbers get recycled. I remember a similar story here and it was on some phone-in show (like someone mentioned earlier). It was presented in such a way that it was a "supernatural" occurrence. Class - ya can't buy it.

kowloon

Facebook will be full of this stuff in years to come.

EoghanIRL

Ah I can imagine the texts they sent :

Stay strong Hun

Chin up xx

Etc..

Sunnyisland

I thought the line would be dead...

donegaLroad

Only reason I would request to be buried with a phone is in case I'd wake up in the coffin scenario.

It would be some bummer if there wasn't a signal!

EoghanIRL

I saw coffins in a museum before and they had bells attached to them because it was easy to mispronounce someone dead hundreds of years ago .

Heroditas

Summer wind wrote: »

Can you imagine the shocked to ****e feeling when they got the text. I would have had a heart attack. Nobody should have to go through that.

When my father died back in 2006, my mother eventually decided to get a mobile phone but she didn't do anything for ages and I forgot all about it after badgering her for a while.
A fee months later I was at a match with a few jars on me when I got a text message from "dad".
I opened it and it went something along the lines of "hi, haven't been in touch with you for a while, hope you're ok. Any news?"
I almost shat myself. Thankfully it ended with "love Mum, finally got your dad's SIM working"
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

donegaLroad

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I saw coffins in a museum before and they had bells attached to them because it was easy to mispronounce someone dead hundreds of years ago .

That is where the expressions 'saved by the bell' and 'dead ringer' came from.

EoghanIRL

donegaLroad wrote: »

That is where the expressions 'saved by the bell' and 'dead ringer' came from.

Cool ! I never thought about it .

johndaman66

Its late at night I've had a long day and may be misinterpreting it but I'm a small bit confused. The number gets recycled, fair enough I understand that, even though its a new one on me. However, what I am having a little trouble getting is that a family member would get a message of that nature from what presumably would be somebody most likely unknown to them. Is it just the chance in well over a million that the person with the re-issued number accidently sent that very message (gets even more unlikely) to one of her family members who still had her number in their phone or remembered it.

Ive an old nokia meself, havent topped it up in over 5 years at least at this stage I reckon but it still hasn't being disconnected. Is this just a UK thing?

dxhound2005

Very colourful explanation for dead ringer and saved by the bell. But probably not true.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dead%20ringer.html

donegaLroad

very interesting that article DX, where ring is metaphorical for circular, and the act of moving something about 180 degrees.

DEFTLEFTHAND

donegaLroad wrote: »

That is where the expressions 'saved by the bell' and 'dead ringer' came from.

Actually a common misconception. Saved by the bell comes from Boxing and dead ringer originated in the criminal world, a ringer is a horse that's substituted into a race for a horse of similar appearance, it's a scam designed to defraud bookies.

bodhrandude

The One Who Knocks wrote: »

Okay now I'm getting deja vu .. Didn't this exact same thing happen a few years(?) back. I even remember reading a thread about it with a very similar response.

Perhaps it was in this thread Has anything genuinely creepy or unnerving happened to you

wayne0308

This situation reminds me of a friend of mine who died when he was 16 in a motorbike crash. I remember the wake at the house and it was very hard to walk through that room with him in the coffin and the family all around. Can't imagine what it was like for the family...

I didn't notice at the time, but his phone was buried with him that day.

I didn't think about this for weeks, but one night, probably a bit stupidly, I decided to ring the number, as I still had it.

Obviously it went straight to the voicemail, but I heard the voicemail message, which was a song by Nirvana he liked... I'm pretty sure it was him singing to it. I'm not sure if it was the song or something, but it was a very scary thing to hear. You couldn't help but think and feel that the phone was down there with him and you were in someway closer to him, like you were communicating directly in some way... I know that is not the case.

To be honest I was a little bit freaked out by the whole thing. I rang it again, months later when I came across the number but it was disconnected.

It seems like it's a strange thing to do, i.e. to bury someone with their phone like that. To text the phone, and ring it like I did in this case. From my own experience though it seems like it can be a helpful thing in the early stages of grieving. Maybe not a bad thing even. Having said that, it's a good thing the numbers are eventually disconnected as I can see how having that voicemail to ring, or that number to text can prolong that whole grieving process and lead you down a bit of a dark road...

Michael D Not Higgins

Ivan and Chris on Newstalk just there having a laughing fit for over a full minute after Ivan read out the story as 'put the phone in her' rather than 'in with her'.

Molester Stallone II

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Ivan and Chris on Newstalk just there having a laughing fit for over a full minute after Ivan read out the story as 'put the phone in her' rather than 'in with her'.

Hope it was on vibrate!

Rubberlegs

My sister kept our Dad's number on her phone, he died almost 4 yrs ago. She got a notification saying "Hi, Dad is on Whatsapp" , awhile ago. If only!!
I seem to remember a few years back, a distraught woman being on air with Gerry Ryan. Her sister , I think, had died. She wanted the phone company not to give her number to anyone else , so she could still ring it, to hear her voice on voicemail. Think Gerry sorted it for the woman. Oh well, each to their own.

_Brian

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I saw coffins in a museum before and they had bells attached to them because it was easy to mispronounce someone dead hundreds of years ago .

Yes..
they also had dead hospitals where the dead spent a while just in case they came back to life...

Dreannz

A friend of mine passed away. I hadn't the heart to delete his number from my phone yet.
Maybe a year later my phone buzzes saying 'john has joined viber' or whatever the message is when your contacts join viber.
Freaked me out when I saw it first my heart skipped a beat but then I thought the phone company must have recycled number.

fryup

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Ivan and Chris on Newstalk just there having a laughing fit for over a full minute after Ivan read out the story as 'put the phone in her' rather than 'in with her'.

funny, but bit inappropriate for radio presenters to be laughing over someone's death