My Nan phoned me early on a Sunday morning. The usual routine at that time was for me to sleep in and then get ready and drive approximately half an hour to hers and have lunch with her, sometimes one of my cousins coming from another direction would also join us and before she died a year earlier, my aunts sister would also be there.
My Nan would only phone on the Sunday morning if she wanted me to pick up some extra groceries.
This was before mobile phones.
Some Sundays we met up with other family members for a pub lunch but the usual routine was for me to go to her.
My Nan was her normal self but she asked me not to come as she was going out.
She couldn’t walk very far at the time and we had stressed that someone should always be with her.
She said she was going for a walk and might meet up with Grandad. Grandad had died some years earlier so I was concerned that she was confused and might actually go out by herself so I told her I would still like to come over and if she wanted to go out for a walk I would come with her.
I then heard a voice in the background and it was without a doubt my great aunt, my Nan’s sister who had died the year before. I would recognise her distinctive voice anywhere but of course logic took over and I thought that my Nan must have the radio on or the Warden from the warden controlled flat my Nan lived in was there and was speaking.
Before I could say anything else my Nan told me not to come and she signed off with ‘Love you’ as she always did.
I rang back and got no answer so got ready to go over, just thinking she was a bit confused but not unduly worried.
Before I left I phoned my cousin who lived nearer to my Nan than I and she said she was going over later in the afternoon but wouldn’t be going for lunch. I said see you later and then I phoned my Nan’s again and this time it was answered by the Warden and she broke the news to me that she had called round and discovered my Nan fallen asleep and died the afternoon/evening before sitting in her armchair.
My Nan had phoned me at 9.00am only she couldn’t have because she had died the day before.
The Warden confirmed she had found my Nan at just after 11.00am doing a routine check as she hasn’t replied on the intercom.
I can’t explain it other than my Nan wouldn’t have wanted me to find her dead or for me to have a ‘wasted’ journey!
I phoned and told my cousin and she said that her phone had rang around 9.00am but she was still in bed and didn’t answer it. She had received a call from a friend later on and then me calling, so couldn’t do a last number redial to check the number of the unusually early call.
Some weeks later I asked my Aunt, my Nan’s daughter if she had the last phone bill and my Aunt replied she had been through all the paperwork and binned everything that was paid up but she had checked the bill and there was a dialled call to my Cousin no answer and a connected call to me that tallied with the time I received a call.
My Nan’s time of death was estimated at 6.00pm the previous day.
I have no reason to believe my Aunt would lie but it’s possible she wanted me and my cousin to feel comforted about Nan calling us but without the concrete evidence of my seeing the phone bill, I have always been left wondering.
I lived on my own at the time so had no one my end to confirm I had spoken on the phone.
Did my Nan call or did I dream it by coincidence and who called my Cousin as none of her friends confirmed they had called her early in the morning.