New York – Manhattan defense attorney Marian Seltzer always gets her husband’s voicemail. But she doesn’t mind leaving messages – he’s been dead for three years.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
When he passed away from pancreatic cancer, John Jacobs, also a defense attorney, was buried with his fully charged Motorola T720 phone. His $55 Verizon bill gets paid every month and his cell number is even etched into his gravestone under the words “Rest in Peace.”
The first call to Ja cobs in the great be yond occurred at his funeral, when son Simon, 19, phoned while startled mourn ers gawked at the ringing coffin at Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus, NJ.
“The poor grave diggers,” recalls Selt zer, laughing. “I thought they’d have a heart attack.”
Jacobs was known to call those closest to him three or four times a day. “He called me every half-hour,” said his son Sammy, a 22-year-old senior at Indi ana Univer sity who came up with the idea to bury dad with his cell.
Seltzer added the gravestone touch. “I didn’t want to do the whole beloved husband thing or the religious thing,” explained Seltzer. “I wanted to keep it away from the cliched. And I thought this was pretty unusual – so did the engraver.”
Last week, Seltzer dialed the number and listened to her husband’s outgoing message: “Hi. You’ve reached the voicemail of John Jacobs. After you hear the beep, leave a voicemail and I will return your call.”
She launched into one of her monthly messages. “Hopefully the Knicks will do better this year. Hopefully they’ll finally have a winning season. Sammy passed all his finals. It’s cold outside today. I hope it’s not cold down there,” she told him.
Said the Upper East Sider, “Some people talk to God; I talk to my deceased husband.”
Seltzer has never checked the voice messages because she doesn’t have the PIN. And besides, she says, “I wouldn’t feel right doing it. It’s a private thing.”
The sons often call with the latest sports news.
“Dad, the Giants won the Super Bowl!” Sammy exclaimed in a phone message after the big game in February. “I wish we could have gone. You always wanted to go.”
Simon, nervous before his final lacrosse game, phoned his father to say, “It’s my last game of the season. I’m going to try my hardest and try to get a hat trick.”
Seltzer says she has no plans to turn off her husband’s cell service.
“As long as someone is still out there who cares, I still care. My kids still care. His friends still care,” she says. “I don’t think I’ll ever shut it off.”
Meshugaim.
why are they paying $55 a month when they can get a much cheaper deal?
keep on caling
one day the mailbox will be full(interesting it isn’t yet)
Night and weekend are free
The Prust didnt say how/if the phone is still charged. But then again, it doesnt have to be charged as the calls will do directly to voicemail.
I wonder if the almona realizes she could get a much cheaper plan since there are no outgoing calls from where he is???
Seltzer has never checked the voice messages because she doesn’t have the PIN. And besides, she says, “I wouldn’t feel right doing it. It’s a private thing.”
?? someone has to do that if not her as im sure he forgot his pin too and after a week his VM would be full except Verizon has diffrent rules for the dead.
And what about all tha marketing calls lol
But it is some sort of comfort after all.
dosen’t the voicemail usually get full if you do not delete it at sometime.?
What a shame to waste this kind of money on a cell bill which is buried. You can feed a few hungry people with those extra dollars. As we say in Halel those days.
Loi Hamysim yehaleliyo…Ozneim luhem vloy yishmuie…..
Great Sholom Bayis.
Fascinating. The fact that nothing in their family dynamics appears to have changed suggests that relationships were no different pre-mortem.
His number is 917-685-5711 (as seen on the head stone) call in and wish him a happy chanukah
Thank god meshuga tit nish vei
At least the guy doesn’t bother anyone davening.
maybe they have a special dead man’s plan
I called and his mailbox is full!
did she call him to comfort him when his wife was sitting shivah
I just called the number on the metzava and got the message that the mailbox is full. What will people think of next?
digital age” dorash el hamaisim”
Poor phone has 2 b buried
I hope its on Vibrate, alot of ringing tones could wake up the dead
Maybe they have a lot of faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead soon. When that happens they want to have a phone nearby to notify the location to pick up the now live man.
OK, So now who will be next to get burried with their laptop? Next thing we’ll hear, burried appliances will never have to be recharged! OY, what is this world coming to?
I tried calling but the voicemail was full, I geuss he didn’t have time to listen to them
can you tell us which carrier it is?
we would like to swich over to them. they must have great service.
if its verizon, can all the verizon people (from the commercial) fit there?
What a shallow way of thinking in terms of life and death. They are in for a big surprize soon…….when mosiach comes
HIS MAILBOX IS FULL………….. DOES HIS WIFE HAVE A DIFFERENT WAY TO REACH HIM??? HOW IS SHE GONNA CALL HIM NOW??
While this is an idea I wouldn’t advocate, and is quite easy to poke fun of, I think that if we scratch beneath the surface (no pun intended) we can learn a valuable lesson:
The relationship beyween husband and wife and between father and his children was obviously quite healthy one. We should try to emulate that aspect of this story.
As far as the voicemail filling up:
most voicemail plans delete messages more than 30 days old.
He Might Be Alive But The Phone Is Dead
what a bunch of clowns
Does he have free roaming?
how dos it stay charged?
She cares, her kids care, mr jacobs’ friends care. all care about him. SORRY! HE DOESN’T CARE FOR YOU.
ahhhhhhh!. I called and somebody answered!!
(I dieled the wromg number by mistake)
I wonder he he has text messaging
We need someone with a Tech background to clone the number and call the family for HIS phone…
I think everyone is missing the larger point here which is that the family obviously has not come to terms with the death of their husband and father. A person who has properly mourned and grieved would know that John is in a better place and would not need to keep earthly ties to him. Instead, they would focus on memorializing him, giving charity in his merit, and fondly remembering him. There’s nothing wrong with believing he’s still a part of their lives, but to call him? This is sick. Someone should get them counseling immediately.
I think he is entitled to a 2 Year contract UPGRADE..if he should see all the new models since he died i am sure he would pick the newest Blackberry so instead of calling in for his messages he rather SEE it and read it…..Freilichen Hanukah
“meshuga oyf toyt”
no pun intended
instead of throwing out their money on the phone bill they can have a guaranteed way to comunicate with their father give the money for tzedakah leli. nishmosy it all ways works
maybe he never listened to her when he was alive,never too late!
why don’t they just give is email address? That can’t get full. I think they have wifi up there
stop calling me, you nebs!
“Some people talk to — but i talk to my dead husband “
please be careful that’s apikorses, between the lines, but it makes me say louder with Kavoneh
שלא שם חלקינו כהם וגורלינו ככל המונם
Weird to say the least..sorry for the families loss …but this way out there as far as what most would consider normal behavior. It would have been a greater lesson to the kids to honor their late father as another poster said to give that $55 a month to charity. That $660 a year could do a lot to feed the many hungry out there…
hope he’s got an outlet down there to plug his recharger in
learn some mishnayos for him instead
He really needs a blackberry
This is getting dangarous, first they’re burying live phones then they are gonna bury live people
I’m not sure that it is allowed to call him, because constant ringing might disturb him. There are two schools of thought on how to go about praying at graves. One school of thought says that the niftar doesn’t hear, and therefore it is only permitted to daven to Hashem to answer because of the zchus of the niftar. Another school of thought is that the niftar does hear and can be asked there to be a mailitz yosher for the living.
I hear bloomberg wants to put specail tax for cell phones in grave
I might expect this from the wife but not from the kids. She brainwashed them. They all need help.