A father-of-two heard his deceased mother’s voice for the first time in 15 years – after finding a recording of it on an old alarm clock.
Ed Morrish, 41, discovered the clock while going through old things in his garage.
Recalling that it had a recordable alarm on it, he pressed play and was amazed to hear his mother shouting, “Get up Edward”.
It was the first time the audio and comedy producer had heard his mother’s voice since she passed away in 2006.
"It was lovely to be reminded of her voice and I laughed of course, because it was such a ridiculous thing for her to record,” he said.
Ed, from Hampshire, re-discovered the two-decades-old clock when the family were moving things around in the garage and came across it. He was surprised to find it still worked and when he played the message to his two children, aged nine and 11, it was the first time they’d ever heard their late grandmother's voice.
"When I went to university in 1998, my mother gave me an alarm clock where you could record your own alarm, so I told her to record it.
"I've just found it, and it still works. She died in 2006, and this is the only recording of her voice that I have.
"I wasn't shocked, really; I knew what it was as soon as I dug into the box, so I was just happy it still worked.
"The batteries had done that weird thing where they go all salty, but I took them out, scraped the contacts clean, put in new batteries - and my kids heard my mum's voice for the first time," Ed recalled.
He said his children were "stunned" when they heard their Gran shouting, ‘Get up Edward’, and they asked, "That's what she sounded like!?"
And after Ed a video of the clock on Twitter, it’s actual inventor, Tom Lawton, got in touch with him.
He wrote: "Oh my! This is amazing Ed. This was my first invention, WakeYoo. I'm so moved to hear this and hope you are well."
Ed said he used the alarm clock throughout his entire time at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and it survived a further two years in central London, eight years in Harrow, and 10 years in his current Hampshire home.
"Nothing scares you awake like your mum, he said, adding: "I cannot imagine it lasted past moving in with my now-wife in 2004.
"It's going by the side of my bed so when the kids want to wake me up they can get my mum to do it."
