Sheri Emerson, and her uncle Graham at Harton cemetery in South Shields where Graham’s mother Lesley is buried. See SWNS story SWPHONE; A family who sent text messages to a mobile buried with their late gran were horrified to get replies from ‘beyond the grave’ – after a cruel prankster took over the number. Relatives of Lesley Emerson placed her beloved mobile handset into the coffin with her when she died aged 59 – because she always loved texting people. They were promised the number would never be given to anyone else and occasionally sent her a loving SMS as a way of coping with the grief. But three years after she passed O2 gave Lesley’s number to another customer – who began to get the messages and realised they were being sent to a dead person.