"Do loved ones bid farewell from beyond the grave?"

[no_hypocrisy]

13. I almost thought so when my uncle died.

My uncle and I had a close bond. We'd call each other on Monday nights after dinner and talk politics for about an hour. Well, maybe more than politics. He introduced me to the internet and soon we were e-mailing back and forth.

When he died, I was devastated. It was the Tuesday be Thanksgiving. I couldn't stop crying and had to stop as I was in a public library. So I figured I would send one last e-mail to Uncle Jerry.

The e-mail told him that I loved him, that I missed him, that I would never forget him. Stuff like that. And I mailed it.

30 minutes later, I check my e-mail and there's a response from his account. Now, I knew he was quite dead. And I had watched enough episodes of The Twilight Zone to automatically open that e-mail. You never know . . . . . I wasn't sure I was ready to correspond beyond the here and now.

But I did open it and the first sentence was to allay my anticipated fears. It was his son, my cousin, who explained that when his father died, the computer was still on and his e-mail account open. And my cousin proceeded to tell me how much he appreciated all the love and caring I offered his father and he knew that his father already knew what I professed.

I still have that e-mail.