Well, this one is sort of bittersweet. We have relatives in many different timezones, so we have to carefully coordinate calls to reach each other at sensible times. We've done this long enough that there are never screw ups. So when our phone rang in the middle of the night, I knew it was trouble. The answering machine picked up before I could get to it, so I went to check the message. It was Dad - which was weird, since he normally lets Mum handle all communications - and his message was terse: "This is your father, call me as soon as you get this message." I immediately wondered what had happened to Mum, and prepared myself for the worst as I called him back. He answered quicky, and told me the bad news ... their phone was misbehaving, so he called me to test it out! Because he normally never calls, he had no idea what time it was.

I could leave it there as a wacky thing my Dad did one time, but there is a touch of twilight zone to what came next. Soon afterwards we came home one day to find a message on the machine. It was Mum this time, with an almost identical message to Dad's midnight mistake. I rolled my eyes and said "if this is another phone test ...". My wife reassured me it must be nothing, as she thought she heard Dad in the background; he often interjected into phone conversations from the comfort of his favorite chair. So I called Mum back prepared to give her heck, but she answered the phone in tears: Dad had died. That time he called in the middle of the night, weirdly presaging his own passing, was the last time I spoke to him.