When we lose someone close to us, it often feels hard to believe that they're really gone.
In a way, it makes the pain of their passing worse because we can feel the emotional weight of their absence lift with a sudden glimmer of hope only to realize that what we're hoping for isn't real.
Still, even when we realize that, it can sometimes give us comfort to reach out to them like they're still alive. This can be something we do in our own heads, or it can take the form of a more literal approach like talking to their graves or texting their former numbers.
One woman has spent the last four years doing this, but whether others believe it or not, this culminated with a surprise response from someone who needed to see her messages.