My story begins on November 21, 2004.
I was on my way home from a friends house when my cell phone rang. It was my Stepmother, "Amy where are you?" I told her I was on my way home and that I would be there in about 30 minutes. I detected something funny in her voice and I asked her what was wrong. She didn't say anything and immediately I thought she was mad at me for leaving a light on or leaving laundry in the washer or something silly like that so I asked one more time,"what's wrong?" She told me my Grandfather had died. "WHAT!!" I screamed as I cut off several cars to pull off the road. I couldn't believe what I had just heard (my Poppy and I were very close). I hung up the phone and composed myself enough to drive home. When I arrived home I was met by the saddened tears of my father and stepmother.

After our tears, hugs, and I'm sorry's, I went downstairs to my apartment to sit alone and cry. I was sitting on my couch which at the time faced directly towards the hallway door and I swear I saw Poppy standing in the doorway. It was only for a brief second (though it felt like an eternity). Plain as day I saw his face, his powder blue "grandpa" shirt with a collar, two buttons and a pocket, blue jeans he always wore and white sneakers. Through my tears I just smiled and knew he had come to say goodbye.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend his funeral because I live in CT. and He lived in NC. and I couldn't travel that far on such short notice with my then two and a half year old son. In any event I truly feel I never got to give him a proper goodbye, thus leading to me not really accepting the fact that he is gone.

A few months after Poppy's death something strange (not scary) started happening.

After I would put my son to bed I'd be laying in bed unwinding from the day and usually I would end up thinking about my Grandfather before I fell asleep. Every once in a while I would be woken up to the sound of my sons talking toy grill going off. I would get out of bed and move it a little just in case it shifted a bit on the shelf and caused itself to go off. I would go back to bed, eventually drifting off back to sleep. This happened for quite a while until eventually I got fed up with it and removed the batteries (my son hadn't played with it in a while anyway). As soon as I did that it seemed that his other electronic toys would start going off when no one was around. I just dismissed this is Poppy saying Hi.

In February, 2005 I became pregnant and two weeks before my Grandfather's second anniversary in heaven I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy (who in my opinion is a spitting image of my Poppy). Of course I still think about my Poppy almost every night before I go to sleep and low and behold what begins to happen again? You guessed it. More electronic toys going off.

One night (I remember this as vividly as if it were really happening) I was having a dream that I was talking to my Poppy and I was asking him if he ever comes around to visit us and if he has seen his new Great Grandson and in this dream I was crying. I awoke to a soaking wet face and the sound of my baby's toy juke box radio going off. I got out of bed to tap it (the only way to turn it off other than letting the song play all the way through) and I said "Hello Poppy" and went back to bed. I seemed to fall back to sleep rather quickly and into the same dream where Poppy asked me if I got his message. I was awakened two more times that night to the toy juke box radio. Since then everything (the toys) have been quiet until today, which is the reason why I am writing this.
I was browsing Castleofspirits stories and I was thinking about my Poppy when I heard my cell phone make the beep sound that it makes when someone turns it on (yet is was on because I was just on it a few minutes before) but when I picked it up it was on the "welcome" screen. I just smiled and said "Hello Poppy".

Thank you for reading my story and please remember that a loved one is never far from a memory (or any electronics you may have laying around :o) )