Halloween came early for one British woman who received a text from her grandmother's cellphone on Wednesday- three years after she died.
Sheri Emerson's grandmother Lesley died from colon cancer in 2011, the Shields Gazette reported. The loving granddaughter, of South Shields, England, and her family continued to send text messages to Lesley's cellphone that was buried with her.
"Obviously we know that Nan wasn't ever going to reply to our texts. It was just something we did as a comfort for ourselves, because she loved to text," Emerson, 22, told the Shields Gazette.
But Emerson received a response from her grandmother on Thursday after sending her a text the night before.
"I'm watching over you and it's all going to get better. Just push through," reads the text from Lesley Emerson's phone.
Emerson, a care worker, said she felt ill when she read the reply.
"Loads of horrible things were running through my head," she said according to the BBC. "How did somebody get her telephone? Had they been getting all the texts?"
When Emerson sent a text asking who it was, the incoming message read: "A disturbing vegetarian."
Emerson's uncle called the number to get to the bottom of the eerie messages.
The family learned the texts came from a man who recently got the phone number and thought the texts were a prank from his friends.
O2, the phone company in charge of the late grandmother's number, said if a number remains disconnected for a period of time it's sent to a general pool of numbers for reuse, the BBC reported.
Emerson said she took her frustration out on the man, even though he was unaware of the situation. The man, whose name has not been released, apologized once he realized the texts were not a joke.
O2 said they sold the number to another phone company named Giffgaff and apologized for any pain they caused the family, the Shields Gazette reported.
The company is also working with Giffgaff to retrieve the number for the grieving family.
