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Phone Call From The Dead

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Anonymous

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In 1991, my mother was killed in a tragic auto- pedestrian accident. Funeral arrangements were made, family gathered in the city where she lived, and we all returned home and carried on.

About a month later, I was sleeping at home when the phone rang, about 3:00 a.m. I had to get up to answer it, as the only phone was in the kitchen. There was a lot of static on the line, and then, amazingly, I heard my mother's voice! She had a very distinctive voice - she sounded like Lucille Ball, so I could tell who it was.

http://www.forteantimes.com/happened/phonecall.shtml

Link is dead. See post below for complete text.
 
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Nine years ago, when I was twenty, I received a very strange call that bothers me to this day.

My gran had passed away a few months previously and one afternoon, feeling depressed. I lay on my back on the living room floor just thinking about her. I was so lost in thought that when the phone rang it seemed really loud and it startled me.

When I answered the phone, I was spooked further by the sound of crackley static. However, when I heard my gran's voice, I froze. I remember my heart started thudding loudly and I felt very, very panicked.

My sense of panic heightened when the caller told me that she had a letter for my gran, and she wanted to know if I wanted it forwarded to me. I was confused because the voice coming clearly through the static was my gran's voice. The caller seemed to pick up on my sense of panic and was nervous and hesitant. She told me that the letter was about life insurance.

This was too much. I told them that I did not want the letter and I put the phone down on them.

Then I sat on the stairs and stared at the phone in a state of shock. I hadn’t even asked who the caller was.

The obvious identity of the caller would be the occupants of the house my gran had left behind her. They may have been receiving mail shots addressed to my gran. However we did not know the new house owners and they did not have my mom's number (why would they?). I checked this with my mom some time later, although I've never told her about the call.

I still feel upset by this memory. If I hadn't already been spooked before I answered the phone, I could have had a reasonable conversation. I do wonder though that if I hadn't been lost in thought thinking about my gran, whether that phone call would ever have happened at all.
 
Wow, what a mad thing to happen!
I wonder what would have happened if you'd accepted the letter. Maybe it's better that you didn't.
 
If dead people start sending me email forwards, I'm going to be very upset.
 
Personally I'd love a phone call from the dead. Especially if it was my ex-husband because he's still unfortunately alive.
 
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Ditto escargot, although in my case it is an ex-fiancé, and preferably informing me that all the money that he owes me is on it's way:D
 
My BF rang this morning while I was out and got Call Minder (UK BT answering service). The Call Minder message ('The person you are calling is unavailable' etc) was interrupted by a woman's voice saying, 'Is that you?' and the phone then cut off. He rang again and this time was able to leave a message. When he came over later and told me of this I rang BT about it, to be told that it was impossible. It couldn't even have happened if someone was in my house (which there wasn't) as Call Minder records at the exchange. BT checked my line and all was OK.
Next time this voice interrupts I'd like the lottery numbers please, or at least a likely winner of the 2:30 at Haydock.
 
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eeek!
A little weirdness is going on around me.
My BF, who tried to ring me and was 'impossibly' spoken to on the phone, was woken next morning by a big black bird which leaned into his open window and tapped on the inside of the glass! Later that day he visited his Ma who informed him that she'd had a visit, complete with beckoning hand, from her long-dead father... On his arrival home his 8-year-old Persian cat fainted at his feet! Hmmm.......

I've just had my long-dead 2nd phone line re-connected just for internet use. It has a new number and only the modem is plugged into it, no phone. Someone gave me a telephone bell which plugs into the socket and lets you know when the 'real' phone is ringing. I stuck it in thinking I'd never hear it, but it rings all the time! And when I plug in a phone I can retrieve half a dozen messages from and to various people. It must be a relatively newly recycled number. So I'll unplug the bell and leave the line alone from now on!
 
my friends have introduced me to the "hilarious" jape of replying
"..why, he's been dead for years !" when you ask for them on the phone....

ho. ho and indeed thrice ho.


why not try it on any mentally fragile acquaintances
 
The one thing that bothers me about incidents involving telephones is the fact that the telephone system itself is at times a jumbled mess, with crossed lines, dead tones and strange noises and voices apparantly coming included in the line rental as standard. Not being a telephone engineer I cant comment on the technical side of it, but it seems to me that even if there were a problem with the phone system, BT seem incapable of doing anything, as demonstrated when Escargot asked BT's advice regarding the call minder, their reply being that it was "impossible". In situations involving telephones, I would be more inclined to seek the advice of an experienced phreaker (telephone system "hacker").
 
I know for a fact that nothing's impossible when it comes to the phone company. I've heard strange sirens, mysterious beeping, confused operators, and more.

From reading, I know that at one point any user could access any function of the system from any phone. There is a story about a guy who called into the phone company (from various places) and listened in to people's lines remotely... without their knowledge of course. I'm sure the security is better today, but I'd be suprised if there wasn't somebody who knew how to do that still.

Phones are electronically fickle, also. My one friend's line didn't work for quite awhile. You could ring his phone, but they'd never answer (it only rang once on his side, and there was no connection when he picked up). Turned out there was some bare phone wire in the basement that ended up in some water. Whenever the phone rang, the voltage shot up enough to short out the line. Now imagine if a similar scenario played out in a relay box with hundreds of interconnected lines.

Ok, so I haven't really made a point, but at least there are some things to think on the next time you get a mysterious call.

-M
 
Just tonight our phone rang, and when I picked it up I heard a looped voice of a woman intoning "Incoming call from BT, please hold the line". I waited for a minute or so and when nothing was forthcoming, I hung up.

I mean, if BT can't figure out how to make a phonecall....?
 
Yes, I got a wierd call too once, but I jsut figured it was crossed lines. Still scared me a bit though... I picked up the phone to dail a number, but didn't hear the dial tone, so I put the reciever to me ear and heard static. After a few moments, in a faint male voice I heard "We've pretty much given up on her", then static again. Then, the dial tone clicked in....Weird!
I also get alot of calls from people wishing me happy (insert a holiday here) who's voice I don't recognize. I call them back and they say they were trying to call someone with the same name, but just dialed that person's number, and some how the message got to me. I always just figured it all these people were just getting the wrong number out of the phone book, but they claim to not have looked it up as they already knew the number!
 
BT Update..

Eventually they got through. Turned out they just wanted to remind me to pay a bill. Pah.
 
My grandmother has been gone almost 7 years now and while it would seriously freak me out, I'd LOVE a call from her. I was going to go see her a few weeks before she died to take her out for a little while but my mom said she hadn't been feeling well, so I opted not to go. To this day, I'm so mad at myself for at least not going to visit her, even if she wasn't up to going out. On and off for months after she died, I would have dreams where she was still alive and I would tell her I loved her but she would never answer me! Even if she only called long enough for me to tell her I love her and have her tell me the same, I'd be happy.

Sorry about that. I still feel guilty for not seeing her when I should have.

Anyway, on a lighter note. I've had weird stuff happen with my phone but the weirdest was about 18 or 20 years ago. There was a storm going on but (not knowing any better) I decided to call a friend who lived next door. She decided to call me at the same time so that when I picked up the phone to dial, she was already on the line, having picked it up to dial me! We attributed it to the storm but it still seems pretty bizarre even if it was ths storm.
 
tygerkat said:
Sorry about that. I still feel guilty for not seeing her when I should have.
Click to expand...

Please don't feel guilty, tygerkat. Your grandmother knows now that you wished you'd gone to see her, and she forgives you! You know she'd want you to forgive yourself. :likee:
 
Your Grandmother just died & you get a call about Life insurance & you're not interested????!!You must be an idiot!She could have had a million dollar policy with you as the bene!!!What's wrong with you.
 
hey tygerkat i totally sympethise my gran passed away in jan this year and i regret not going to see her before she died, i had been avoiding her calls for a while(2moths) i was a bit depressed and didnt wanna spk to nobody from my family... i dint even go round christmas day and she had a roast cooked for me and everything..its the first year of my life iv missed christmas at my grans..anyways i call her about two weeks after xmas patch things up tell her im sorry i was a stranger and i will go to the hospital with her the day after tomo(then jan 11) my battery went dead but not before i told her i loved her and ill se her in couple of days...anyways i didnt call her i dunno why i guess im just a f**k up like that!! she collapsed in the hospital and died and im ashamed to say but i just burst into tears if only id have called her or went with her she may be alive now i dunno......
 
Thanks for your sympathy, devil-girl1. Maybe this can be a warning of sorts to others out there to not miss a chance of seeing or at least speaking to a loved one as often as you can.
 
My Grandmother is 93 years old. I think about her quite often and always feel guilt ridden about not calling her and telling her how much I love her. I know her time left on this earth can't be a great lot. After reading these posts tonight I have vowed to call her post haste in the morning and let her know.



~Kim~ :)
 
i heard the most beautiful story today from a colleague of mine.
first, i shall say that his long time mate, let's call him joe, died 1 and a half or 2 yrs ago. they were together for a long time, and it took my colleague - let's call him jack - a long long time to kind of get over it.
second off, last sunday jack's very old mother (103!!!) died.
ok, so here's the story. last monday the mother's funeral takes place. before entering the church, jack turns off his phone. on exiting the church, he turns it back on and finds an unanswered phone call from joe's cellphone. no messages, just joe's phone number.
he rushes back home, where he still has joe's cell phone. it's off, plus the battery's dead or even disconnected. like, there's no way the phone could have accidentally turned itself off and called him.
jack's conclusion was that joe tried to let him know that he was close to him (and, subtext, kept looking after him).
my conclusion was: er, who knows?
but still, i think it's a beautiful story.
 
Beautiful indeed.

On a more mundane note, we recently changed our number and went ex-directory as a means of stopping the incessant junk calls.
Soon after, we started getting calls at two or three in the morning with just crackling on the end of the line, or no sound at all. Turned out the 'new' number we'd been given was secondhand (as they all are) and had previously belonged to someone who' d got heavily in debt. The calls were a particularly nasty tactic of a debt collection agency, trying to 'wear him down'.

We went back to our old number. :(
 
Somewhat related. My experience with the "dead" and telephones.

Several years ago I had a dream where I was being chased through a labyrinth of halls and rooms. Whatever was chasing me was unseen but I could hear it breathing and sobbing behind me. As I was being pursued I came around a corner to find a group of people standing in a long hallway. They brought a young man forward. He told me that his name was "Ethan". He wanted me to call his parents and tell them that he was safe and happy but couldn't come home again. He recited a ten digit phone number and said goodbye. I walked out of the labryinth and onto a deserted highway. There was a phone booth. I dialed the operater and told her the phone number I wanted to reach, but she said I was calling from "too far away" and that she couldn't make a connection. I started walking down the road and began to wake up. The sensation of waking up was that I had been in an extremely deep sleep.

The dream was so vivid that I mentioned it to a co-worker as soon as I got to work. For some reason I even remembered "Ethan's" phone number. For a lark the co-worker picked up the phone and dialled the number - turned out to be a New York number (I live in Western Canada). I watched as he said, "Hello is Ethan there?" and then promptly turned pale and slammed down the phone. He said, "They said that Ethan doesn't work there anymore".

The story isn't great, but shows that the human mind probably has a great ability for remembering numbers and/or throwing together disparate elements. For example, Ethan is a Hebrew name and New York has a large Jewish population. It would be very likely that I had either seen the number in some newspaper or had simply seen a New York area code and then somehow worked the whole thing into a dream.
 
^ ^ Wow, good one!! I dont suppose that if you called back today they'd tell you he passed away years back?
 
This happened to me about a month ago, I had just gone to bed and was going through a bit of a stressful time with my job. I started thinking about my relatives who had passed over and (not sure why I did this, but it seemed right at the time) I asked for their advice, or a sign from them that everything was going to be OK.

No more than about a minute later the landline phone beside my bed began to ring. It was pretty late and I wasn't expecting any calls, so I was quite shocked by this. I picked up the phone and looked at the number that was calling, and it was the number of my mobile phone. I disconnected the landline without answering, and checked my mobile phone which was lying on my bedroom floor. And yes the mobile phone was for some strange reason dialling my landline. Just to clarify, I hadn't dialled my landline from that phone and it was not saved in any recent activity that may have been sparked into action by something accidentally touching my phone, nor was my phone 'contacts' list open or set to dial my number.

Not sure what I would have heard had i answered my phone, but I was a little too spooked to find out.

Anyone else had anything similar happen?
 
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Shazzles said:
Not sure what I would have heard had i answered my phone, but I was a little too spooked to find out.
Click to expand...

Feedback with an echo, most likely. ;)
 
Back in 2007, one night I decided to be a silly bugger and read spooky stories about phone calls from the dead late at night before I went to bed. Common themes amongst them were the number being withheld/no caller ID and the calls happening at specific times. After being scared silly I eventually went to bed and fell asleep.

A few hours later I was woken by my mobile phone going off. Since I use my phone as an alarm clock my instinctive thought was that it was the alarm going off, so I automatically reached over and pressed the hang up button to silence it. I lay there wondering why on earth it was so dark for 7am, then it dawned on me that it hadn’t been my alarm, someone had been trying to call me. Wondering who on earth would be calling me in the middle of the night I reached over and looked at my phone.

The call was from a withheld number at 5:00:00am :shock:

Usually I’d put this down to a cold caller or something, but the fact it happened the night I’d been up reading about phone calls from the dead, and that I’ve never had anything like that happen before or since, really creeped me out. I do still wonder though, what would have happened if I’d answered it?

Oh, I tried to go back sleep, but I was so spooked I had to turn my phone off just in case whatever it was called back :oops:
 
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