As humans, we’re not comfortable around the topic of death. Oftentimes, death can come at a moment’s notice, snatching our loved ones away. Other times, it approaches from a distance, slowly sapping energy until the person we love is gone. Seeing the death of a child can be particularly devastating— but losing a parent is tough too.
We all know we will, one day, have to bury our mom and dad— but still, the experience can turn our worlds upside down, creating vulnerabilities we were aware of before.
“Adults are often surprised at the emotions which can threaten to overwhelm them following the death of a parent,” The Bereavement Counselling Service explains.
“There may the loss of a home, the sense of loss of our link with the past, even the loss of expectation that someday our relationship might have changed.”
Reddit user Beersie_McSlurrp had been grieving for his father, who passed away two years earlier, when he received an amazing surprise.
In a post to the subreddit /r/TwoXChromosomes, the son described logging into his email on a day like any other. Usually, he’d find some spam, a few advertisements, and things from work— but on that particular day, he found something special waiting.
“I received an e-mail from my dad today,” he wrote.
“He died two years ago.”
It turns out that the man’s father had used a service called FutureMe, which allows people to schedule emails to be sent to themselves in the future. By registering with the site, it gave him the option to send e-mails to other people in the future, as well.
In a correspondence with Mic, the son shared an excerpt of his dad’s e-mail:
The father wrote:
“Hello Son, I am talking to you from the grave, wooooooooo. I always said I will come back and haunt you.
“Seriously, by the time you read this, I will have passed on. Hopefully by now you have adjusted well enough to life without the old man and you have managed to help your mother adjust. I have complete confidence you will be taking just as good care of her as I did.
“I have a few thoughts to share with you and a few insights which we never got around to discussing in the last few months where I was still coherent (I’m imagining the morphine will have turned me into a bit of a vegetable. Hopefully I entertained you with some decent hallucinations or jibber jabber).
“The first thing I want to say is just how proud I am……..”
The son cut off the excerpt before it became too personal.
With technology becoming an increasing part of our lives, more and more digital posthumous services are copping up. Afternote is an online service that allows you to plan your own funeral wishes, manage your digital legacy, and leave goodbye messages for loved ones. DeadSocial provides similar services, which are discussed in the video below.
If planned in advance, these services can bring immeasurable joy to family members in the midst of their grief.
“[Dad] told me how proud he was of me for becoming the rank of Chief (border security) and that he loved me,” Reddit user Beersie_McSlurrp told Express UK. “Really nice to receive so long after he passed.”
Fellow Redditors resonated with the son’s post, sharing their own stories of loss:
“I feel you. My mom died when I was 5, and later in life, I found a diary of hers that had letters written to me. It was amazing since I didn’t really get the chance to know her while she was here.”
“My parents divorced and my father had re-married. I do not speak to my stepmother… I constantly wish I could find things like this… I can see his handwriting in my head (he wrote in all caps) and would doodle while he was on the phone.”
“Mine died when I was twelve, a few years ago, and when I clean the house I sometimes find random sketches, letters and stuff from him. It’s like finding a secret present, especially since I never got to know him personally.”
Hear the story below.
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