I was living in England with my husband. We had moved to England the year before, from New Zealand where my family all lived. It was between Christmas and New Year in 1999 and I was visiting friends in Germany when I got a phone call from my mother to say my maternal grandmother had died. Although she had been unwell and was old at 89, it was unexpected and I was deeply shocked and saddened. I was very close to my grandmother. She had supported me throughout my childhood when I was a dancer and had paid for a lot of the costs associated with dance like costumes and accessories and travel to and from dance competitions. Not just paying for these things, but also physically accompanying my mother and me to dance competitions all over New Zealand. So I was devastated to hear she had died. I immediately began trying to arrange to travel back to New Zealand to be with my family for the funeral. But the friends I was staying with in Germany convinced me that since I already had a trip back to New Zealand planned in 3 weeks time, that it made no sense to reorganise my travel plans and that it would be nicer to head home in a few weeks as planned, and spend time enjoying memories of my grandmother with my family, after the funeral. My mum was not happy but I convinced her it was the better option. At the time the funeral was taking place in New Zealand, my husband and I got up at around 2am in the morning in England, made a cup of tea, lit a candle and sat in quiet contemplation, remembering my grandmother and thinking about my family as they would have been attending the funeral. Around the time the funeral would have been coming to an end, the phone (an old-fashioned landline) rang (this was about 3am in the morning British time) and when I answered it sounded like one of those old long distance connections from a long distance phone call. No one replied - just a faint crackly hum from what seemed like a long way away. I quietly asked "is that you nanny?" and the line went dead and the candle on the table blew out. At the time and to this day, I know it was my grandmother contacting me to let me know that she understood why I had not flown home to attend the funeral and that she was reaching out to say it was ok and she was still with me. I felt the guilt I had been carrying about not shifting my travel plans, dissolve away. It was a positive experience that I still cherish.

What was your level of consciousness and alertness during the experience? wide awake and alert

Was the experience dream like in any way? no - my husband witnessed it too

What emotions did you feel during the experience? positive, warm and calm Did you hear any unusual sounds or noises? the crackly hum of the phone connection