I Found Out Why My Dad Never Let Me Touch His Old Phone” One item I kept from my dad’s room after he died last year was an old keypad phone he never allowed anyone to use. Not a cellphone. Not using WhatsApp. Calls only. I charged it at last last week. 47 unsent messages were kept in drafts.
To my mother’s number, all. Her death was ten years ago. It wasn’t a dramatic message.
“Safely arrived at work.” “Today I made your favorite dal.” “I missed you a bit more this evening.” “Maybe tomorrow I’ll stop pretending you’re just busy,” was the final draft, which was dated the night before he passed away. I became aware of something uneasy: He did not cling to the phone. He was clinging to a version of life in which loneliness had not completely triumphed.
I made no deletions. I turned it off and turned it back on.
