A WOMAN grieving the death of her beloved grandmother often texted a mobile phone she was buried with — but her blood ran cold when she got a reply.

Lesley Emerson, 59, died from bowel cancer in June 2011 and her relatives put her phone into her coffin because she loved texting family members, according toThe Shields Gazette.

Her granddaughter, Sheri Emerson, sometimes sent her beloved gran texts as a way of coping, but she was terrified when she recently got a response.

“I’m watching over you, you’ll get through this, you’ll be all right,” the first response to Sheri Emerson, who lives in the UK, said.

When the petrified woman asked who the mystery texter was, she received this message: “A disturbing vegetarian.”

Sheri Emerson, a 22-year-old care worker, said she felt sick when she saw the texts.

“I’d sent a message on the Wednesday night telling nan about family life and then I got the reply on Thursday,” she said.

“Obviously we know that nan wasn’t ever going to reply to our texts. It was just something we did as a comfort for ourselves, because she loved to text. You can imagine what I was thinking seeing a message flash up from her.”

Sheri Emerson’s uncle, Graham Emerson, called the number and spoke to a man who said he’d used the phone for several weeks. He said he responded to Sheri Emerson’s texts because he thought they were a hoax.

The Emersons are furious with the phone company because they’d paid to keep the number.

Phone company 02 confirmed to The Shields Gazette they sold the number but are trying to retrieve it.