I Lost All My Daughter’s Adorable Voicemails

My friend wants to sue the phone company. There was a mix up with her bill (which she did pay) but they cut off her phone anyway and for some reason all her voice messages she had been saving for years had been lost into the ether. She was extremely upset because she had saved a message from her grandfather (who died.) I suggested to her that we do a class action suit, because I too kind of want to sue the phone company.

People think I’m really popular. Every day, at least one person would send me a text or an e-mail saying, ”You’re voicemail is full!” Well, I’m not that popular. The problem was that I had saved messages from my daughter since she was three years old (That’s six years!) These messages included things she said like, ”I love you so much mommy!” And, ”Happy mother’s day mommy. You are the best mommy in the world.” And, ”Guess what? I came in first in my ski race!”

My voice mailbox held 25 messages and about 20 were from my daughter, thus the reason my mailbox was usually full.

I saved all the voice messages from my daughter because they were so sweet and also because when she was three and four she still talked in a baby voice that was super adorable. When she visits with her father, I used to listen to them, just so I could hear her voice.

And then, two weeks ago, I switched to an iPhone from my Blackberry. I’m quite happy with my iPhone. But I was shocked and almost cried when I got home and realized that all my daughter’s messages (along with a couple important work messages that I needed to save) had all been erased. I called the phone store immediately. I’m not the most knowledgeable in technology, but apparently if you switch from a Blackberry to an iPhone, your messages are lost or just disappear.

That’s six years (!) of saving my daughter’s messages. To me it felt to me like someone had died. I was that upset. I cried. I couldn’t sleep that night. I wish I had been warned about this. How am I ever going to get back my daughter’s sweet voice saying, ”You are the best mommy in the world?” How am I ever going to get back the excitement in her voice when she left that message about winning a ski race? These things, as the saying goes, are priceless. (But I WOULD pay to get those messages back!)

I’m not sure how many other mothers save messages from their children on their voice mails, but I’m pretty sure a lot do. My friends do, especially the funny ones to share with friends like, ”Mom! I stepped in dog shit. What do I do?” That’s why we (or at least I) need voice mailboxes that hold at least 20 messages.

It’s not for my friends, or even for my work people, it’s so my daughter can leave me messages and so that I can listen to them whenever I want. It makes me happy. But there is a silver lining in all this.

When my daughter saw my new iPhone, and because she’s way more tech savvy than I am, she recorded a video of her saying, ”I’m leaving you this message in case I’m not around and you want to see my face and hear my voice. You are the best mommy in the world and I love you so much.” She then kissed into the video. So, at least I have that.

But, still, I AM thinking (of course jokingly”¦sort of) of suing the phone company. The emotional pain of losing all those messages, like my friend losing her grandfather’s message and voice on her voicemail is devastating  I mean, should I not get a free year of service or something? So, here I go again. If you can’t leave a message, it’s because my daughter has left me a number of them. Like I said, I’m not that popular.

(photo: kenny1 / Shutterstock)