I couldn't delete my mother or my grandfather from my phone last year and felt that my husband would think I was bonkers if I asked him to do it. I left them on the house phone until December (when we got new ones) and I changed my mobile some time in the year. Did have to delete a message from my grandfather asking me how I was (a couple of weeks after my mother died) and within a fortnight he was gone too.
It seem there is quite a few of us that cant "delete"... That's OK! so I'm not alone, I guess as long as you have room in the phone for the living, but if they start clogging up the phone, then I guess it's OK to delete.............I just dont want to feel bad about deleting.
It reminds me of one of the biggest shocks of my life which I had a month after my mother died.
For some reason I had to ring my step-father to ask him some question ( which I never got to ask). His phone rang about five times - and then my mother answered and was talking to me! She'd been dead a month! It took me a few moments to realise what had happened. My step-father was out and he still hadn't deleted my mother's message from the answerphone! I was so stunned I just put the phone down and never did ask the question. It was also the last time I heard my mother's voice.
Me too boxtops!...........still have the last Xmas card from my lovely Mum, she died 10 years ago, still miss her so much!..........I put her card up with others every year!.........
I still have a message from my departed dad on an answering machine and I'd never delete it. I'm so afraid of accidentally deleting that message, I turned off that machine, and got another.