A family were shocked to receive text messages from their dead grandmother who had been buried with her mobile phone three years earlier.
Since her grandmother Lesley’s death, Sheri Emerson, 22, had been sending messages to her phone to help comfort her.
The family had buried the 59-year-old with some of her favourite possessions, including her phone, and thought operator O2 had terminated the number.
But Ms Emerson, from South Shields, South Tyneside, was left in shock when a reply flashed up on her phone, saying: “I’m watching over you and it’s all going to get better. Just push through.”
Her uncle, Graham Emerson, eventually rang the number and discovered it was a man who had been using the recycled number for a few weeks.
Ms Emerson, 22, said: “I felt sick when I read it, I was in shock, I didn’t know what to think.
“I’d sent a message on Wednesday night telling her about family life and then I got the reply on Thursday.
“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.
“So you can imagine what I was thinking seeing a message flash up from her.
“The person must have realised what was going on and they replied that they were sorry.”
