A woman who lost her father in January 2023 continued to send text messages to his number after his death. "I found comfort in messaging him," the woman, who goes by Nelly, told People, adding that she sent him updates about her life and shared what she was going through at the time. Several months later, though, something changed — she discovered that she could no longer send texts to her father as she coped with her grief.
In May 2023, she sent a long message to her dad's number, but unexpectedly received a response.
Nelly told People that she "was going through a lot" and felt like she wanted to connect with her father, to let him know "how much I miss him and needed him."
She knew something was amiss right away though because when she sent the message on her iPhone, it was a blue iMessage message. When texting her dad, the message bubble was always green (indicating that it was an SMS message), she explained to People.
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On TikTok, Nelly shared a screenshot of the messages she sent to her dad's number. An earlier (green) message was visible. It said "Dad I miss you." However, the message below it was blue.
"Hi Dad," Nelly wrote in the message. "It's been 5 months since you're gone. I miss you so much. I wish you were here next to me. The pain of losing you has been the hardest thing I ever went through. I love you so much."
"I'm so upset you're no longer there," she continued. "But I will always keep our memories alive. I can't (fathom) the thought of you not ever being with me anymore. But I will always love and miss you Dad."
Nelly unexpectedly received a response. "For a second, I felt that perhaps he was alive, and read my message," she told People. "But I was wrong. A stranger answered me and notified me that she got a new number."
"Oh my I'm so sorry," the stranger wrote back. Nelly apologized and said her father's number must've been given to someone else.
When the stranger explained that they had just gotten that new number, Nelly wrote, "Sorry to disturb you. I used to always text my dad to his number."
When Nelly shared the interaction on TikTok, she captioned her post with, "I can't even text him anymore, even that's taken away from me."
The experience was painful at first, but luckily, Nelly has found another way to send messages to her father.
She has now found comfort in sending messages to her father via the Telegram app, she told People.
