I, and my family, have been tormented by something that happened after my mother's death. I never looked into it further, because I probably didn't want to know. But it has stayed with me and I can't get it out of my mind.

In July of 1997 my mother died. She had been very ill for a while and was frequently irritable and angry due to feeling so poorly. She particularly didn't like answering phone devices, nor did she like to leave messages. My mom used to say, whether you answered the phone or not, "It's me!"

At the time, and after, her death, I did not have the usual in-home answering machine. Rather, I received my messages through U.S. West Telemessaging, where you pick up the receiver and you here a pulsing sound telling you you have a message. You then call a service and retrieve your calls, whereupon you get a recording that tells you the date and time the call was "received."

After my mother's death, I had a surgery (one she probably wouldn't have approved of). Anyway, when I was in the hospital, I received a call--and when I got home, the telemessaging recording told me when the call was received (don't have exact date in front of me at present). But without a doubt, the call took place several weeks to months after my mother's death. The message was simply, in an irritated voice, "IT'S ME!"

I was so shocked, I dropped the phone. Still not well from the surgery, I immediately called my sister, brother and father. My brother signed up for the same service, so that I could "transfer" the message directly into his message bank for his calls. I did so. My brother lives in another city from me. My brother was very close to my mother and was living with her and my dad prior to her death. My brother, my sister and my father, all said there was absolutely no question that this was Mom's voice. None of us are in anyway involved in exploring the paranormal. This happening, however, was hard to ignore. I think we didn't explore it further (other than to save the message) in large part because we didn't want to know. It is hard to explain. We were, to say the least, however, dumbfounded.

It didn't make sense to me that she would leave such a message---it didn't say anything, and yet, it clearly said it was "her" because only she would have left such a message, not to mention the fact that the voice was undeniably hers.

Both my brother and I used a phone recording device and tape recorded this message onto a microcassette for safekeeping. Looking back on it now though, I wish I would have delved into the matter right at that time, because it would have been simple to prove that this message did come in AFTER HER death, and maybe even a voice match could have been done (if there is such a thing).