What do you do with phone numbers of dead people on your phone?

[bif]

I have a bunch of them including my brother's number. In some strange way, I think leaving them there keeps their spirits alive. I guess, if I ever get a new phone, I'll delete them.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I have address books w/ the same. There are way too many deceased friends and family on there. ...

I don't look at the address books any longer, and haven't in years, due to the pain and sadness it brings to me. I guess like you, I keep around for the memories it provokes. Take care...

[NurseJackie]

2. I don't have the heart to delete them. It's a nice reminder whenever....

I don't have the heart to delete them. It's a nice reminder whenever I see their name scroll by.

The other day, I accidentally dialed a deceased friend's phone and a fax machine picked up.

(In my old-fashioned paper address book, I just use a highlighter to mark those who are deceased... the other notes (birthdays, anniversaries, children's names, spouse, etc) may come in handy at some future point, so there's no need to wipe all traces of them from my life.

[sobenji]

3. I have the same dilemma with FB friends who died.

On one hand I like going back through and looking at the memories. On the other hand it drives me crazy when people who obviously weren’t friends in real life wish my dead friends happy birthday because they don’t know they are dead.

[sobenji]

4. And voicemails.

My dad passed away a year ago November and I still have eight voicemails that he left for me in the last few months of his life on my phone. I have sent the messages to my computer so I have a copy of them but I just can’t bear to delete them on my phone

[MaryMagdaline]

5. Keep them

I kept my phone with last text from the nurse regarding my husband (“not responsive.”). I wish it had been a text from him. A friend said she kept her husband’s voice on answering machine for years.

[FM123]

6. I leave them there too, I can't bring myself to put an X through their names....

[In_The_Wind]

7. I've kept most of them including text messages.

My cell phones still have photos. I don't know how to transfer them.

[NCjack]

8. On my phones, I add an "XX" (for expired) to the front of the last name. That

moves them to a group in the list. Also, I place "ZZ" in front of names of numbers that I have blocked. (If the real name is not known, I assign a name such as ZZscammer1.) All of those move to a group at bottom of my phone list.

[Aristus]

9. I delete the numbers, since they no longer have a practical function.

But I keep the voicemails.

I still have a number of voicemails from my late father-in-law, and my wife and I will listen to them together every once in a while in remembrance.

[In_The_Wind]

14. Imagine my surprise when a text message showed up from Jeff 2 weeks ago.

His daughter kept his phone. Yes, she sent me a text message from his phone number.

[Aristus]

18. Must have been like seeing a ghost...

[JDC]

10. I leave them.

[delisen]

11. I go with the spirit. May it has to do with the mourning period

and one day it will be time to delete.

I think waiting until getting a new phone it a fairly good way of transitioning

I do some writing occasionally and if I decided it would be best to delete sooner, I would write down a few sentences about the person, a remembrance, when I delete the number.

[NJCher]

12. Leave 'em. You never know...

snip

This is a phenomenon in which people literally receive phone calls from the dead. The deceased caller usually had a closed relationship with the recipient.

In such calls, the telephone usually rings normally, but may sound flat and abnormal. Usually the connection is bad and the voice of the deceased fades. The voice is recognizable, however, and usually speaks familiar or pet names and words. The phone call is terminated abruptly, either by the caller or by the line going dead. If the voice is too faint, the recipient may hang up in frustration.

If the recipient knows the caller id deceased, he or she may enter a state of shock and hang up immediately. If the recipient does not know that the caller is dead, he or she may talk as long as thirty minutes. Usually such calls occur within twenty-for hours after the caller’s death, although, some calls have been reported as long as two years from the time of death.

Generally the purpose of such mysterious calls seems to be to leave a farewell message, or a warning of an impending danger, or information needed by the living. Actress Ida Lupino received a phone call from her father six months after his death; he told her the whereabouts of some papers to settle his estate.

More.

[Polly Hennessey]

13. Keep them.

I always felt it was like erasing them from existence. If you get a new phone, problem solved. It is as though someone else did it for you. You will feel no guilt.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

15. I keep them. Honestly didn't ever occur to me to remove them, I guess because

I'm lazy. But yes, they are a reminder.

[Phentex]

16. I can't delete them...

But I don't call them.

[Totally Tunsie]

17. The numbers remain as I haven't the heart to delete them. It's just too final to do so.

It is very bittersweet, however, to be scrolling and come upon those numbers.

[csziggy]

19. Just before Christmas I unfriended my mother on Facebook

She had not been on Facebook since at least 2013 but I waited nearly three months after she died to unfriend her. I still feel disloyal.

The phone number is still connected and on my phone It probably will be until everything is moved out of her house in case I have to reach my sister who is sorting out all the stuff. Sometimes she sets down her cell phone and doesn't hear it when it rings, so having the house phone as a back up to call is a good idea.

[Duppers]

20. I keep old emails of people

I loved who have died.